Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lobster Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the lobster
Boil the lobsters, then remove the tails and cut them in half.
Remove the gut and cut each tail into four pieces, placing them in a small dish.
Add the meat from the claws and the picked body meat to the dish.
Remove any furry parts and the lady (spawn) from the body.
Make the sauce
In a mortar, beat the spawn and shells, then stew them with water, vinegar, pepper, salt, and pounded mace.
Add a large piece of butter rolled in flour to the stew and boil for 1-2 minutes.
Strain the mixture and pour it over the lobster in the dish.
Bake and serve
Sprinkle crumbs on top and cover with a light pastry.
Bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) until the pastry is done.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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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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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Lobsters
- Provide the main meat, which sets the flavour and substance of the pie.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and rolled in flour it thickens the stewed sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and stock mixture so the sauce clings to the lobster.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the shell stew.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce with butter and flour. Adding the floured butter to the stew and boiling briefly lets the starch swell and thicken the liquid. If it is not boiled, the sauce stays thin and runs off the lobster under the pastry.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, vinegar, pepper, flour):
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, vinegar, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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