Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Remove all the meat from the lobster and cut it into dice-sized pieces.
Pound the lobster meat, spawn, and coral with the butter in a mortar, then rub through a fine sieve.
Finish and serve
Combine the mixture with the White Sauce, lemon juice, cayenne, and salt.
Let it stew for 10 minutes, then serve.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the main flavour and the body of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the lobster flavour through the pounded mixture.
- White sauce
- Forms the creamy base that the lobster mixture is folded into.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster and cream flavours.
The step that matters
Rubbing the pounded mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding the lobster meat, spawn, and coral with butter makes a paste that can stay grainy. Pushing it through a fine sieve removes fibres and lumps, giving the sauce a smooth texture when it is combined with the White Sauce.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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