Why it works: Sauce and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,095 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the mixture
Combine minced fish and a few spoonfuls of well-made white sauce in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add seasoning to taste.
Finish and cool
Remove from heat and stir in the yolk of an egg.
Allow the mixture to cool before serving.
Prepare tinned fish
Wash and drain tinned fish before use.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sauce + lobstertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + lobstertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together306 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Fish + saucetop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,389 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Fish + eggtop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,745 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lobstertop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Minced fish
- Provides the main body and protein structure of the mixture.
- White sauce
- Adds moisture and a creamy base that holds the fish together.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the mixture and helps bind it as it cools.
The step that matters
Stir in the yolk off the heat. Egg yolk proteins set at moderate temperatures, so adding it after removing the pan from heat and stirring gently helps keep the mixture smooth rather than grainy or scrambled.
“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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