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Lobster Farce for Quenelles

A lobster farce used to fill quenelle molds.

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

Lobster Farce for Quenelles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the panada

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and add the stock or milk.

  3. Cook until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a compact mass.

  4. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Shape and steam

  1. Pound the lobster and the flour mixture together in a mortar.

  2. Add each egg separately, seasoning to taste, and pound thoroughly.

  3. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

  4. Stir in the cream.

  5. Steam the mixture in small quenelle or dariol molds.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Flour
Forms a cooked panada that gives the quenelle body and holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during steaming to give a firm, tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps form the flour base.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the finished quenelle.

The step that matters

Cooking the panada until it forms a compact mass. If the flour mixture is not cooked long enough and dried out, it stays wet and loose, so the quenelles may not hold their shape or may turn heavy and sticky after steaming.

“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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