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Coquilles of Lobster

A lobster dish served in pastry shells with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Coquilles of Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the shells

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line small shell-shaped moulds with light paste crust and prick the lined moulds with a fork.

  3. Fill the moulds with uncooked rice or dried peas.

  4. Bake the filled moulds until golden brown.

  5. Remove the rice or peas from the moulds.

  6. Place the pastry shells on a sieve.

Make the filling

  1. Cut the lobster meat into small dice.

  2. Place the diced lobster in a stewpan with chopped mushrooms and butter and heat the mixture until hot.

  3. Moisten the hot mixture with rich white sauce.

  4. Season the mixture with pepper, coarse sea salt, grated nutmeg, and cayenne.

  5. Keep the mixture warm in a bain-marie.

Assemble and serve

  1. Warm the baked shells in the oven.

  2. Fill the warmed shells with the lobster mixture.

  3. Sprinkle the filled shells with fried breadcrumbs.

  4. Serve the shells on small plates and garnish with parsley.

  5. Add anchovy essence for extra flavor if desired.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Light paste crust
Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the filling.
Lobster
Provides the main meat and sweet, delicate flavor of the filling.
Rich white sauce
Moistens the lobster and binds the filling into a creamy mixture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when the mixture is heated.
Fried breadcrumbs
Add a crunchy, browned topping over the filling.

The step that matters

Baking the pastry shells blind. Pricking the pastry and weighting it with rice or peas keeps the shell flat and stops it puffing or shrinking. Baking until golden sets and dries the crust so it stays crisp when the moist filling is added.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, lobster, mushroom, butter, sauce, pepper, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, lobster, mushroom, butter, sauce, pepper, 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.

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