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Lobster Pudding

A steamed dish of lobster meat, breadcrumbs, eggs, and white sauce, colored with cochineal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster and milk

  1. Chop the white meat from the lobster's tail and claws.

  2. Boil the onion in the milk with the lobster shells.

  3. Beat the eggs and strain the milk (not too hot) over them.

Make the pudding

  1. Stir in the breadcrumbs, seasoning, and lobster meat.

  2. Add cochineal to color the mixture.

  3. Pour into a buttered mold and steam for 1½ hours.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 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. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavor and the firm, meaty texture of the pudding.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body so it holds its shape when set.
Eggs
Set during steaming to bind the mixture into a tender, sliceable custard-like pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness and carries the onion flavor into the pudding.
White sauce
Adds a smooth, thick base that gives the pudding its creamy body.

The step that matters

Strain the milk while it is not too hot. If the milk is too hot when poured over the beaten eggs, the eggs can scramble, leaving lumps and a grainy texture instead of a smooth set pudding.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, egg, milk, 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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