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Lobster Soup

A broth made from lobster heads, water, French roll crumb, anchovies, onion, herbs, lemon peel, cream, butter, nutmeg, and flour, served with forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the brown fur and bag from the lobster heads.

  2. Beat the fins, chine, and small claws in a mortar.

Make the stock

  1. Boil gently in water with the French roll crumb, white pepper, salt, anchovies, onion, sweet herbs, and lemon peel until flavorful.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the spawn with butter, nutmeg, and flour.

  2. Mix the spawn with cream.

  3. Cut lobster tails into pieces.

  4. Boil the pieces with cream and soup.

  5. Serve with forcemeat balls heated in the soup.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavour and the tender meat that goes into the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness when worked with the spawn.
Flour
Thickens the spawn mixture so it blends smoothly into the soup.
Onion
Adds savoury depth to the stock as it simmers.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat balls so they hold their shape in the soup.

The step that matters

Mix the spawn with cream. Adding cold cream to a flour-thickened mixture can leave lumps, so it should be blended smoothly before the soup is heated further, to keep the texture even.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, onion, lemon, cream, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, onion, lemon, cream, butter, nutmeg. 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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