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Dressed Fish

A lobster dish cooked in oil, wine, and sauce, finished with butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dressed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Split the lobster down the center and cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Fry the lobster meat in salad oil for 5 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Pour off the oil and add Chablis, salt, pepper, cayenne, parsley, and garlic.

  2. Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes.

  3. Add the Espagnole sauce and boil for a few more minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Dish up the lobster meat in the shells.

  2. Add butter and lemon juice to the sauce, bring to a boil, and pour over the lobster.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meat, which firms and turns opaque when fried and simmered.
Chablis
White wine that adds acidity and aroma to the sauce as it reduces.
Espagnole sauce
Brown sauce base that gives the dressing body, depth and a rich color.
Butter
Added at the end to enrich the sauce with fat, gloss and a rounder flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the butter.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows as it simmers in the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding butter and lemon juice to the sauce. Once butter is in, boiling can cause it to separate and turn greasy, and lemon juice can thin or curdle the sauce if overheated. Bringing it just to a boil and serving promptly keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, lemon, sauce, pepper, parsley, garlic):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, lemon, sauce, pepper, parsley, garlic. 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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