Name: Lobster Sauce
Ingredients: lobster shells and claws; milk; butter; lobster coral

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

lobster shells and claws
milk
butter
lobster coral

Directions

Break up the lobster shells and claws.
Boil the shells and claws in milk to infuse flavor.
Pound the lobster coral with some butter until well mixed.
Combine the infused milk with melted butter and the pounded coral.
Serve the sauce over boiled salmon.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Lobster + milktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together489 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).