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Lobster-soup

A broth made from boiled lobsters, veal gravy, anchovy, lemon peel, onions, nutmeg, mace, and cayenne, finished with lobster meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lobster-soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobsters

  1. Boil the lobsters and set aside.

  2. In a mortar, bruise the small claws and fins with the anchovy, lemon peel, and scalded onions.

Make the stock

  1. Add this mixture to the veal gravy and simmer to extract flavor.

  2. Strain the stock to remove solids.

Finish the soup

  1. Split the lobster tails, crack the claws, and remove the meat, cutting it into small pieces.

  2. Add the lobster meat, coral, soft oyster meat, nutmeg, mace, and cayenne to the strained stock.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

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

  4. Anchovy + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,263 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

Lobsters
Provide the main meat and flavor of the soup.
Veal gravy
Forms the rich, savory liquid base of the soup.
Anchovy
Adds deep savory flavor that rounds out the stock.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the flavor of the stock.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmering the anchovy, lemon peel, and onion mixture in the gravy. Simmering extracts flavor gradually from the bruised aromatics into the stock. Boiling too hard can cloud the liquid and make it taste harsh, so the stock should be kept at a gentle simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, veal, anchovy, lemon, nutmeg, mace):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, veal, anchovy, lemon, nutmeg, mace. 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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