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 lobster
Boil the live hen lobster until cooked.
Remove the tail.
Check for eggs; ensure it has a full share of spawn.
Pick out the spawn and red coral into a mortar.
Cut the lobster meat into small squares or pull it apart with a fork.
Make the sauce
Add ½ ounce of butter.
Pound until smooth.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve using the back of a wooden spoon.
Combine the pounded spawn with melted butter until well mixed.
Add the lobster meat and warm gently on the stove without boiling.
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.
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Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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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
- Hen lobster
- Provides the main meat and the spawn and coral that give the sauce its flavor and color.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
The step that matters
Warm the lobster gently without boiling. Boiling a butter-based sauce can cause it to separate and turn greasy, and can toughen the delicate lobster meat. Gentle heat keeps the emulsion smooth and the meat tender.
“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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