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Lobster Souffle

A steamed lobster soufflé made with lobster, egg yolks, egg whites, butter, flour, milk, vinegar, anchovy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Chop the lobster finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a large enamel pan over gentle heat.

  3. Add the flour and blend, then gradually add the milk and boil for 3 minutes.

Finish and cook

  1. Stir in the chopped lobster, vinegar, anchovy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and egg yolks.

  2. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites until just combined.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a prepared tin and steam for 1 hour.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custard-like texture.
Flour
Flour cooked into the butter and milk thickens the base so it can hold the lobster and air.
Milk
Milk, thickened with the flour, forms the moist body of the soufflé base.
Butter
Butter adds richness and flavour to the base and helps form its roux.
Tinned lobster
Lobster is the main flavour and provides the soufflé's substance.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé dense instead of light and risen.

“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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