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Lobster Soup

A savory soup made with onions, ham, beef, stock, haddock, lobster, seasonings, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. In a stew-pan, melt the butter and add the chopped onions, ham, and beef.

  2. Cook until the onions are soft, then gradually mix in the stock.

  3. Bring to a boil and strain through a fine sieve, pressing the onion pulp.

  4. Return the strained soup to the pan and boil, skimming off any foam.

Add the lobster and finish

  1. In a mortar, beat the haddock meat and lobster meat until smooth.

  2. Gradually stir the soup into the lobster mixture until creamy.

  3. Bring the soup to a boil again, skimming as needed.

  4. Add the lobster tail and claw pieces, along with the seasonings and white wine 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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Haddock + lobstertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Softened onions and their pulp give the soup body and a sweet, savoury base.
Butter
Melted fat carries flavour from the onions and ham into the soup.
Rich stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavours.
Haddock
Beaten to a smooth paste, its meat thickens the soup and adds a creamy texture.
Lobster
Provides the main shellfish flavour, with the meat beaten in for body and the pieces added for bite.
White wine
Adds acidity and brightness that lift the rich lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually stirring the soup into the lobster mixture. Adding hot soup slowly to the beaten fish and lobster meat tempers the mixture, so it blends smooth and creamy instead of curdling or turning lumpy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, beef, meat, haddock, lobster, pepper):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, beef, meat, haddock, lobster, pepper. 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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