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 ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the lobster
Remove the spawn and red coral from the lobster.
Pound them to a paste with ½ ounce of butter.
Cut the lobster meat from the back and claws into small squares or shred it with two forks.
Make the sauce
Heat ½ pint of melted butter until boiling.
Stir in the lobster mixture.
Keep it on and off the heat for 2-3 minutes until heated through, but do not let it boil.
Add any optional flavors if desired, and a spoonful or two of cream for improvement.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together798 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the main meaty texture and the sweet, rich flavor of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Cream
- Optional addition that softens the sauce and adds a milder, rounder richness.
The step that matters
Heating without boiling. Once the lobster is stirred in, boiling can toughen the proteins in the meat and cause the butter emulsion to break and turn greasy. Keeping the heat gentle, moving on and off the flame, warms the lobster through while keeping the sauce smooth and tender.
“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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