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Lobsters, Paris Fashion

A lobster dish cooked in wine, broth, Madeira, tomato sauce, butter, and lemon, served with a reduced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lobsters, Paris Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the court bouillon

  1. In a saucepan, fry the onion and carrot in butter until softened.

  2. Add white wine and broth, then a bunch of parsley with aromatics.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the lobsters and boil for 12 minutes.

Cook and pick the lobster

  1. Cool the lobsters in their cooking liquid, then drain and pick the meat from the tails and claws.

  2. Slice the lobster meat and place it in a buttered flat saucepan.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Prepare a sauce with the lobster cooking liquid, reducing it and adding Madeira, cayenne, tomato sauce, butter, and lemon juice.

  2. Heat the lobster slices in the sauce, turning them gently.

  3. Arrange the lobster on a dish and pour the sauce over it 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main meat, which is gently heated in the sauce so it stays tender.
Butter
Enriches the vegetables and the finished sauce, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, which becomes the base of the sauce.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the reduced sauce.
Tomato sauce
Adds body, colour and savoury acidity to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and wine sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the cooking liquid for the sauce. Reducing concentrates the flavour and thickens the liquid. If it is under-reduced the sauce will be thin and weak; if over-reduced it can turn salty and sticky, so taste as it cooks.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, butter, white wine, parsley, lobster, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, butter, white wine, parsley, lobster, pepper. 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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