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Petits Souffles De Homard

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Petits Souffles De Homard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the lobster meat into neat pieces.

  2. Prepare ramekin cases with bands of writing paper about 3 inches above the case.

  3. In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise sauce, tomato sauce, and aspic jelly until it looks white.

  4. Stir in the lobster pieces and add a little tarragon and chervil.

  5. Fill the ramekin cases with the mixture.

  6. Once set, carefully remove the paper bands.

  7. Garnish with coral sprinkled on top and serve.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tomato + cherviltop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lobster + cherviltop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, sauce, tarragon, chervil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, tarragon, chervil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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