Skip to main content
Main

Fricassee of Lobster and Mushrooms

A creamy lobster and mushroom fricassee made with butter, flour, milk, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Fricassee of Lobster and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove lobster meat from shell and cut into strips.

Make the fricassee

  1. In a pan, cook butter with broken pieces of mushrooms and onion juice for three minutes.

  2. Add flour and gradually pour in the milk, stirring constantly.

  3. Add the lobster meat, season with salt and paprika, and heat through.

  4. Once heated, add the sherry wine.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavor of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Carries the cooking of the mushrooms and adds richness to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the flour. Pouring the milk in gradually while stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, flour, butter, milk, mushroom, sherry, wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, flour, butter, milk, mushroom, sherry, wine. 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 SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipes