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Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from lobster meat, shell stock, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Break the shell and stew it with the legs in 1 pint of water until reduced.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Make the sauce

  1. Add flour and water to thicken.

  2. Pound some of the lobster spawn with a little water and add it to the sauce.

  3. Bring the sauce to a boil.

  4. Add 1 lb of butter.

  5. Stir in the lobster meat.

Season and finish

  1. Season with anchovy, cayenne, salt, and lemon juice.

  2. Add white wine or cream.

  3. Add a pinch of mace.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavor and the tender meat that gives the sauce its character.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and sets when heated with water.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel while carrying flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavors of the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the butter. Add the butter in pieces to the hot sauce so it melts and blends into the liquid. If the sauce is boiling hard or the butter goes in all at once, the fat can separate and leave the sauce greasy.

“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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