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Lobster Chowder

A creamy soup made with lobster, crackers, butter, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lobster meat into small pieces.

  2. Roll the crackers finely.

Cook and serve

  1. In a pot, combine the butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add the milk and water, then stir in the chopped lobster.

  3. Boil for 2-3 minutes and serve.

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

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

  2. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Lobster + milktop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together489 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 chowder and gives it its sweet, delicate flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.
Milk
Provides the creamy liquid base and body of the chowder.
Crackers
Starch that absorbs liquid and helps thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Boil for 2-3 minutes and serve. Lobster meat turns tough and rubbery when overcooked, and milk can scorch or separate at a hard boil. Keep the heat controlled and serve promptly once the lobster is heated through.

“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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