Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Lobster

A baked lobster dish topped with cream and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Scalloped Lobster

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster claws.

  2. Chop the body open lengthwise and pick out the meat.

  3. Chop the meat finely.

  4. Season the lobster meat well with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the lobster shells in a baking dish.

  2. Fill each half of the shells with the lobster mixture.

  3. Pour the cream over the lobster.

  4. Sprinkle the browned breadcrumbs over the cream.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot.

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. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 protein and the sweet flavour that defines the dish.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, and turns silky as it heats around the lobster.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until hot. Lobster is already cooked and only needs heating through. Overbaking toughens the delicate meat and can cause the cream to separate, so watch for the dish to be hot rather than baking it for long.

“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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes