Name: Excellent Lobster Soup
Ingredients: meat from 6 small lobsters (claws, bodies, and tails); ¼ cup butter; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon flour; 2 quarts water; crumb of a French roll; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; coarse sea salt to taste; 2 anchovies; 1 large onion, chopped; sweet herbs (such as parsley, thyme, or dill); a bit of lemon peel; 1 quart cream; forcemeat balls (made from remaining lobster meat, mace, pepper, salt, a few crumbs, and 1-2 eggs)

Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + parsleytop 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

Lobster: Provides the main flavor and the meat that gives the soup its body.
Butter: Adds richness and carries the flavor of the beaten spawn into the soup.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the soup.
Flour: Thickens the spawn mixture so it blends smoothly into the soup.
Eggs: Bind the forcemeat balls so they hold together when heated.

The step that matters

Boil the lobster tail pieces with the cream and strained soup. Boiling cream can cause it to separate and curdle, and the tail pieces can toughen if overcooked. Keeping the heat gentle protects both the texture of the cream and the meat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, butter, nutmeg, flour, onion, parsley):

Capersfits better
Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, butter, nutmeg, flour, onion, parsley. 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.

Excellent Lobster Soup