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Lobster Pie

A savory pie filled with lobster, topped with breadcrumbs and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Drain the lobster in a colander.

  2. Place the lobster in a pie dish and season with salt, cayenne, and lemon juice.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, and gradually stir in the milk.

  2. Cook the mixture well and flavor with tarragon vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the lobster, scatter breadcrumbs on top, and bake until lightly browned.

  2. Garnish with sliced hard-boiled egg and chopped parsley, then serve 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. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Forms the main body of the pie and supplies its sweet, rich seafood flavor.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, adding smooth texture and richness.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the lobster together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the lobster.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping when baked over the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce well after adding the milk. Flour must be cooked with the melted butter and liquid until thickened so it loses its raw, pasty taste and the sauce becomes smooth rather than lumpy. Stirring in the milk gradually helps prevent lumps from forming.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, lemon, milk, pepper, flour, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonthe original
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, lemon, milk, pepper, flour, egg. 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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