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Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from lobster spawn, anchovies, gravy, butter, lobster meat, lemon juice, salt, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Lobster and ketchup work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the lobster spawn and anchovies together.

  2. Pour 2 tablespoons of gravy over the mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture into melted butter.

  4. Add the meat of the lobster and bring to a boil.

  5. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon.

  6. For an alternative, omit the anchovies and gravy, and season with salt and ketchup to taste.

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.

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.

  1. Lobster + ketchuptop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster spawn
Provides the rich, creamy base and the main lobster flavour of the sauce.
Anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the lobster flavour.
Gravy
Adds savoury body and moisture, thinning the pounded mixture into a sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth texture.
Lobster meat
Adds pieces of lobster to the sauce for texture and sweet seafood flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and seafood flavours.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil after adding the lobster meat. Boiling the sauce after adding the lobster meat cooks the seafood through. Because the sauce is rich in butter, it can separate if overheated, so keep the heat controlled once it reaches a boil.

“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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