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Lobster Soup

A soup made from beef gravy, lobster, small fish, lobster shells, stock, parsley, bread crumbs, egg, butter, and flour or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut the small fish into pieces.

  2. Remove the meat from the lobsters and cut it into small pieces.

  3. Break the lobster shells and add them to the fish for the stock.

Make the stock

  1. Boil the stock gently for several hours.

  2. Strain the stock, thicken it with butter and flour or cream.

Make the forcemeat-balls

  1. Pound the coral of the lobster with a small piece of the stock.

  2. Mix the pounded coral with chopped parsley, bread crumbs, and an egg to form forcemeat-balls.

Serve

  1. Warm the lobster meat in the thickened stock and serve with the forcemeat-balls.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Lobsters
Provide the sweet, tender meat that is warmed in the finished soup.
Egg
Binds the coral and crumbs together so the forcemeat-balls hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Add body to the forcemeat-balls and absorb moisture from the coral mixture.
Butter
Enriches the stock and, with flour, forms a roux that thickens it.
Flour or cream
Thickens the strained stock, giving it a smoother, more body-rich texture.
Coral of the lobster
Adds rich lobster flavour and colour to the forcemeat-balls.

The step that matters

Thicken the strained stock. Flour or cream must be fully incorporated and the stock kept at a gentle simmer so it thickens smoothly without lumps or scorching. Adding thickener to a boiling liquid or unmixed flour can cause clumping.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, lobster, fish, bread, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, lobster, fish, bread, egg, butter, flour. 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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