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Lobster Soup

A creamy lobster soup made with white stock, herbs, and a roux, finished with milk, lemon, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine white stock, sweet herbs, celery, and onion in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a simmer.

  3. Add the lobster and cook until done.

  4. Remove the lobster, cool, and chop the meat.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a separate pan.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the stock mixture to the roux, stirring until smooth.

  4. Stir in the milk, lemon juice, and anchovy sauce.

  5. Add the chopped lobster meat and heat through.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Butter
Enriches the soup and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens it.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in butter to form a roux.
Lobster
Provides the main meat and flavour of the soup.
Milk
Adds richness and body, softening the soup's texture.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the stock to the roux. Pouring the liquid in gradually and stirring constantly keeps the flour dispersed, so the soup thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, lobster, butter, flour, milk, lemon, anchovy):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, lobster, butter, flour, milk, lemon, anchovy. 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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