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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 the stock

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

  2. Break the shell and simmer it with the legs in 1½ cups of water until reduced.

  3. Strain the mixture and add flour and water to thicken.

Make the sauce

  1. Pound some of the lobster spawn with a little water, then gradually add it to the sauce.

  2. Bring the sauce to a boil, then stir in ½ pound of butter.

  3. Add the lobster meat and season with anchovy sauce, cayenne, salt, and lemon juice.

  4. For a richer sauce, add a glass of white wine or a cup of cream.

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 meat that is added to the finished sauce.
Flour
Thickens the strained liquid so the sauce becomes smooth and coats the spoon.
Butter
Stirred in at the end to add richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
White wine or cream
Adds richness and body, making the sauce fuller and smoother.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour before the butter. Flour must be fully cooked in the hot liquid to thicken without a raw starchy taste or lumps. Bringing the sauce to a boil before adding butter keeps the emulsion stable, so the butter blends in rather than separating.

“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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