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To Stew Lobsters

A lobster stew made by simmering lobster shells, then combining the meat with a broth of water, pepper, salt, mace, lemon juice, wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Stew Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Remove the meat from the shells of the lobsters.

  2. Place the shells in a pot with water, whole pepper, salt, and mace.

  3. Boil until the goodness is extracted, then strain the liquid.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the cream or melted butter with the lobster meat and coral.

  2. Add lemon juice and wine, then combine with the strained liquid.

  3. Warm the lobster mixture for a few minutes before serving.

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

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

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 sweet, savory meat and the flavorful shells that build the broth.
Cream or butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.
Lobster coral
Contributes a rich, concentrated flavor and a deeper color to the stew.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich dairy and seafood flavors.

The step that matters

Boil the shells until the goodness is extracted. Simmering shells releases flavor compounds and gelatin into the water; boiling too hard or too briefly leaves the broth thin and weak-tasting, while the cream should be warmed gently so it does not curdle.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, cream, lemon, wine):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, cream, lemon, wine. 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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