Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Lobsters, Crabs, Prawns, and Shrimps, to Boil
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobsters
Choose lobsters by weight; prefer male for eating and female for sauce.
Use a tin vessel to boil the lobsters quickly.
Add 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.
Cover the pot immediately and maintain a fast boil using wood or bellows.
Boil for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on size, until they turn bright scarlet.
Skim the saucepan frequently.
Wipe off any scum from the lobsters.
Rub the shells with fresh butter or sweet oil for a glossy finish.
Cut and serve
Remove the claws.
Crack them without disfiguring the meat.
Cut the tail down the middle.
Lay it open on a dish with the head upright.
Garnish with parsley.
Serve with oil, vinegar, and cayenne.
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.
-
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
-
Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,477 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together890 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
- Forms the main body of the dish, with its firm meat cooking through in the boiling water.
- Fresh butter or sweet oil
- Rubbed on the shells, it adds fat and a glossy finish to the cooked lobster.
- Oil
- Served alongside as a rich dipping fat that carries flavor to the meat.
- Vinegar
- Served as a dipping sauce, its acidity cutting through the richness of the meat and fat.
The step that matters
Boil for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on size, until they turn bright scarlet.. Boiling in a fast, covered pot cooks the lobster through and sets the shell colour. Undercooking leaves the meat soft and translucent, while overcooking toughens it, so size determines the timing.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, vinegar):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Garlicfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, vinegar. 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.
You might also like
Lobster Sauce174 recipes
Lobster Croquettes99 recipes
Lobster Balls7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.