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Canapes of Lobster

A lobster mixture served on fried bread rounds, garnished with egg yolk and white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Canapes of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Make a sauce by melting the butter, then whisk in the flour and milk until well combined and thickened.

  2. Season the sauce with pepper, salt, anchovy sauce, and lemon juice.

  3. Chop the lobster finely and stir it into the sauce.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Fry the rounds of bread in a pan until golden brown.

  2. Pile the lobster mixture on top of the fried bread.

  3. Rub the yolk and white of the hard-boiled egg separately through a sieve and garnish around the lobster.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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 savoury filling and flavour of the canapes.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the lobster together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and fries the bread golden.
Bread
Gives a crisp, golden base that holds the lobster topping.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds a soft, mild texture and a sieved garnish for the finished canapes.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be whisked into the melted butter and milk until smooth and fully thickened. If lumps form or it is undercooked, the sauce will taste pasty and will not bind the lobster properly.

“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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