Name: Lobster Catsup
Ingredients: 1 lobster (about 3 pounds, full of spawn); ⅓ cup sherry wine (plus a little for moistening); 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon whole black pepper; leather (for tying bottles)

Why it works: Sherry and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Lobster Catsup

Ingredients

1 lobster (about 3 pounds, full of spawn)
⅓ cup sherry wine (plus a little for moistening)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon whole black pepper
leather (for tying bottles)

Directions

Prepare the lobster

Remove the meat from the lobster.
Pound the coral in a marble mortar until bruised.
Add the lobster meat to the mortar.

Make the catsup

Moisten the mixture with a little sherry wine.
Mix in the cayenne pepper.
Pour in the rest of the sherry wine.
Mix thoroughly.

Bottle and seal

Transfer the mixture into two wide-mouthed bottles.
Top each bottle with a tablespoon of whole black pepper.
Cork each bottle tightly.
Tie each bottle with leather.

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.

Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lobster + sherrytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together215 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,247 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Sherry + winetop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster: Provides the main meat and coral, giving the catsup its savory, rich body.
Sherry wine: Adds acidity and aroma, and moistens the mixture so it blends evenly.
Cayenne pepper: Adds heat that sharpens the flavor of the seafood.
Whole black pepper: Adds a mild pungent aroma and sits on top as a visible garnish in each bottle.

“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.