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Chaud-froid De Homard a LA Diplomate

A chilled lobster dish served in aspic with vegetables, mayonnaise, and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chaud-froid De Homard a LA Diplomate

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut each lobster in half lengthwise.

  2. Break the claws.

  3. Remove all the meat.

  4. Reserve the coral for decoration.

  5. Slice the best pieces of meat thinly.

Make the lobster cutlets

  1. Mask eight small moulds with a thin layer of aspic.

  2. Decorate the moulds with strips of truffle and sprigs of chervil and tarragon.

  3. Place one or more slices of lobster in each mould.

  4. Chop the remaining lobster meat.

  5. Heat it with enough cardinal sauce to create a salpicon.

  6. Season to taste.

  7. Mix in nearly ½ cup of plain aspic or aspic cream.

  8. Once the mixture is cold, fill the moulds with it.

  9. Place the filled moulds on ice to set.

Make the border and pea bomb

  1. Line a border mould with aspic.

  2. Decorate the sides with slices of hard-boiled egg, truffle, and lobster coral.

  3. Mix the macedoine of vegetables with aspic and mayonnaise.

  4. Season well.

  5. Fill the mould as it begins to set.

  6. Place this on ice as well.

  7. Prepare a bomb-shaped mould lined with aspic.

  8. Fill it with green peas, lobster salpicon, mayonnaise, and aspic.

  9. Place it on ice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Turn out the border onto a round flat dish.

  2. Place the bomb of peas in the center.

  3. Arrange the lobster cutlets around it after turning them out of their moulds.

  4. Insert a decorated silver skewer in the center.

  5. 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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Chervil + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together60 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meaty texture and flavour of the dish.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the shapes and gives a cool, smooth texture.
Cardinal sauce
Binds the chopped lobster into a salpicon and adds richness and flavour.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the vegetables and peas together.
Hard-boiled eggs
Adds a firm, mild texture and contrast for decorating the border.
Macedoine of vegetables
Adds colour, texture and mild sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Fill the mould as it begins to set. Gelatine aspic sets as it cools. If the aspic is fully liquid, it will mix with the filling and blur the decoration. If it is already firm, the layers will not bond and the border may crack when turned out.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, egg, tarragon, chervil, beans, tomato. 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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