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Another Way to Fricassee Lobster

A lobster fricassee made by simmering lobster meat in stock, thickened with butter and flour, then finished with egg yolk, cream, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Another Way to Fricassee Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster shell in large pieces.

  2. Simmer the lobster meat in veal or beef stock for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, mix butter and flour to thicken the stock.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and cream.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. If the lobster has spawn, pound it and add to the sauce.

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. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and forms the base for thickening with flour.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and helps it thicken further when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if the sauce is too hot when it is added. Keeping the sauce below a simmer and stirring steadily lets the yolk thicken it smoothly.

“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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