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Stewed Lobsters

A stew of lobsters cooked with onion, carrot, celery root, bacon, ham, garlic, herbs, wine, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stewed Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a stewpan, fry the onion, carrot, celery root, bacon, and ham.

  2. Add garlic, sweet herbs, parsley, pepper, and cloves.

  3. Pour in the white wine and boil for a few minutes.

Cook the lobsters

  1. Cut the lobsters in pieces and add them to the stewpan.

  2. Cover and boil for 12 minutes.

  3. Remove the lobsters and arrange them on a hot dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Strain the cooking liquid into a small stewpan.

  2. Stir in a roux made of butter and flour, add meat glaze, lemon juice, parsley, and cayenne pepper. Heat for a few minutes, then stir in lobster butter and pour over the lobsters before serving.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender and firm as it cooks in the wine broth.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the cooking liquid that becomes the sauce.
Butter
Combines with flour into a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the strained liquid into a smooth sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan, adding savoury flavour to the aromatic base.

The step that matters

Boiling the lobsters for 12 minutes. Overcooking makes lobster meat tough and rubbery, because high heat tightens its proteins. Timing the boil and removing the lobsters promptly keeps the flesh tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, onion, carrot, celery, ham, garlic, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, onion, carrot, celery, ham, garlic, parsley. 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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