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Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from lobster meat, shell liquid, and seasonings, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce 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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Wipe the shell of the lobster.

  2. Save any liquid that runs out.

  3. Remove the meat from the tail and claws.

  4. Cut the meat into dice-sized pieces.

  5. Set the diced meat aside.

  6. Scoop out the cream and small pieces of meat from the head and coral.

  7. Pound the scooped pieces with salt and cayenne in a mortar.

  8. Break the shells into pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Place the shell pieces in a saucepan with enough water to cover, the mace, and peppercorns.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Let the liquid cool.

  5. Mix the flour with the cooled liquid.

  6. Add the mixture to a stewpan with the butter.

  7. Shake the pan until the sauce boils.

  8. Gently stir in the pounded lobster.

  9. Let the sauce boil briefly.

  10. Add the reserved lobster pieces.

  11. Boil again.

  12. Stir in the anchovy sauce, catsup, and soy sauce.

  13. Adjust the consistency to be thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add a few small pieces of cold butter 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Anchovy + saucetop 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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
Its meat provides the main flavour and body, and its shell and cream build the stock.
Flour
Thickens the cooled liquid so the sauce becomes smooth and coats a spoon.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Anchovy sauce
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Shake the pan until the sauce boils. Flour mixed into liquid clumps easily if it is not kept moving while heating. Constant motion disperses the starch so it thickens evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, flour, butter, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, flour, butter, anchovy, sauce. 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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