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Lobster in Aspic

A chilled lobster salad set in aspic jelly, served in pastry shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster and remove all the meat.

  2. Cut the lobster meat into dice-sized pieces.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the lobster meat with the mayonnaise sauce and mustard and cress.

Set in darioles

  1. Fill some darioles with aspic jelly.

  2. Cut out the inside of the darioles with a cutter.

  3. Fill the darioles with the lobster mixture.

  4. Tap the filled darioles on the table to settle.

  5. Pour in cold aspic jelly until just covered.

  6. Refrigerate until serving.

Serve

  1. Turn out the darioles.

  2. Serve one for each person.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

  1. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meaty filling and flavour of the dish.
Mayonnaise sauce
Binds the lobster pieces and adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Mustard and cress
Adds a peppery, fresh aroma and a light bite to the filling.
Aspic jelly
Sets around the filling to hold its shape and encase it in a clear jelly.

The step that matters

Pour in cold aspic jelly until just covered. Aspic is a gelatin-based jelly that sets as it cools. Pouring it cold and only until the filling is covered keeps it from melting into the filling or spilling over, so the mould sets cleanly and turns out neatly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, sauce):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Horseradishfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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