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Lobsters

A stew made from boiled lobster meat simmered with veal gravy, white wine, anchovy essence, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters and pick the meat clean from the shells.

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, combine water, mace, whole pepper, and lobster shells; boil until flavorful.

  2. Strain the liquid into a saucepan and add the lobster meat.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in butter rolled in flour, veal gravy, white wine, essence of anchovy, and lemon juice.

  2. Boil the mixture and then serve the lobsters in a dish.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Meat + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together335 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main body of the stew and supplies its sweet, rich flavour.
Butter
Rolled in flour, it thickens the liquid and adds richness and a smooth texture.
Veal gravy
Adds savoury depth and body to the stew's liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic brightness that lifts the rich broth.
Essence of anchovy
Contributes a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the seafood flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture and then serve the lobsters in a dish.. Once the butter and flour are stirred in, the liquid must boil so the flour starch swells and thickens the stew. Boiling too long can toughen the lobster meat, so it should be heated just until the sauce is thick.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, lobster, meat, butter, veal, white wine, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, lobster, meat, butter, veal, white wine, anchovy. 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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