Why it works: Butter and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the coral butter
Boil the live lobster until cooked.
Remove the spawn and red coral from the lobster.
Place the spawn and red coral in a mortar.
Add ½ ounce of butter.
Pound the butter and spawn until smooth.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve using the back of a wooden spoon.
Finish the sauce
Cut the lobster meat into small squares.
Pull the lobster meat apart with a fork.
Combine the pounded spawn with melted butter until well mixed.
Add the lobster meat.
Warm gently without boiling to maintain color.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Lobster + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together137 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster spawn and coral
- Gives the sauce its rich flavour and characteristic red-orange colour.
- Butter
- Carries the flavour and adds richness, smoothness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Lobster meat
- Provides the main texture and the sweet, delicate seafood flavour of the sauce.
The step that matters
Warm gently without boiling. Boiling can curdle the butter emulsion and dull the red colour of the coral, so the sauce should be heated slowly and kept below a simmer.
“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.
More lobster sauce recipes
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Lobster Croquettes99 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.