Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Boil the lobster in salted water for 15 minutes.
Remove the lobster, take off the claws, and cut the body down the back.
Extract all the meat and pick out any red coral.
If not using for garnish, pound the coral with butter in a mortar.
Chop the claw meat and combine it with the lobster meat.
Work the black spawn through a sieve into the lobster mixture using a wooden spoon.
Make the sauce
Combine everything in melted butter and bring to a boil.
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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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 meat and flavour that defines the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the lobster flavour and gives the sauce a rich, smooth body.
The step that matters
Bringing the sauce to a boil. Once the lobster meat and spawn are combined in melted butter, the mixture can curdle or separate if overheated, so heat should be controlled while it comes up to 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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