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Small Lobsters Stewed in Wine

A stew of small lobsters cooked in white wine with butter, salt, pepper, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Small Lobsters Stewed in Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and prepare the small lobsters.

Cook

  1. In a pot, melt butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the lobsters and sauté for a few minutes.

  3. Pour in white wine and season with salt, pepper, and herbs.

  4. Cover and simmer until the lobsters are cooked through.

Serve

  1. 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. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Lobster + white winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Small lobsters
Provide the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture, and its aromas carry into the sauce as it simmers.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the lobsters brown lightly when sautéed.

The step that matters

Cover and simmer until the lobsters are cooked through. Lobster meat turns rubbery when overcooked, while undercooked meat is unsafe. Gentle, covered simmering cooks the shell and tail evenly without drying the flesh, so check doneness by the meat's opaque color and firm texture.

“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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