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Lobster-aspic

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and meat work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 909 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster-aspic

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the lobster tail meat into scallops and place it in a bowl with claw meat.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt, oil, and vinegar; let drain after 15 minutes.

  3. Embed a cylinder mold in ice and decorate the bottom with gherkins and poached egg whites.

  4. Coat the mold and pour in a thick layer of jelly; let it set.

  5. Arrange the finest lobster slices in a circle on the jelly and cover with more jelly.

  6. Once set, mix mayonnaise with capers, gherkins, and diced anchovies; pour over the jelly.

  7. Cover with jelly and fill the mold with the remaining lobster; keep on ice for 1 hour.

  8. To serve, dip the mold in warm water and turn the aspic onto a cold dish.

  9. Arrange the lobster claws in the mold and surround with halved hard-boiled eggs.

  10. Serve with a side of mayonnaise sauce.

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. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lobster + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Meat + caperstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Egg + caperstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, vinegar, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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