Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Lobster Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Flavor the cream
Cut the meat of half a lobster into small pieces.
Steep the lobster meat in ½ cup of cream until the cream is slightly flavored.
Remove the lobster meat from the cream.
Set the cream
Whip the cream until stiff.
Place the lobster meat in a mold and add the whipped cream.
When the cream is set, turn it out onto a plate.
Finish
Place a wire sieve over the cream and rub the carapace of the lobster onto it.
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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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together909 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,248 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster meat and coral
- Supplies the main flavor, which the cream takes up while steeping.
- Cream
- Whipped to hold air, then sets into a firm, smooth body around the lobster.
The step that matters
Whip the cream until stiff. Stop at stiff peaks. Overbeaten cream turns grainy as its fat clumps and separates, so it will not set smoothly in the mold.
“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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