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Lobster

A lobster pâté made by boiling lobster, mixing the flesh with mace, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and butter, then setting it in a pot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster in salted water, inserting a skewer in the vent to prevent water from entering.

  2. Once cooled, remove all the flesh from the lobster.

Make the paste

  1. In a mortar, beat the lobster flesh until fine and season with beaten mace, grated nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  2. Mix in the walnut-sized piece of melted butter with the lobster paste.

  3. Press the mixture into a pot as tightly as possible.

Seal with butter

  1. Melt some butter in a deep pan, skimming off any scum.

  2. Pour the clear melted butter over the lobster mixture, ensuring it is thick.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main body and flavour of the pâté.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and forms a sealing layer over the top.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the lobster.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the lobster.

The step that matters

Pressing and sealing the mixture. Pressing the lobster paste tightly into the pot removes air pockets, and the clear butter layer seals the surface from air. Together these help the pâté keep well. Skimming the melted butter keeps scum out of the seal, so the layer stays clear and clean.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, nutmeg, pepper, butter, walnut):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, nutmeg, pepper, butter, walnut. 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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