Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Homard En Aspic
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Dip the lobster slices into the white sauce and set aside until cold.
Set the aspic
In a flat cylinder mold, add a little clear aspic jelly.
Decorate with the whites of hard-boiled eggs cut into shapes like diamonds and leaves.
Cover with more jelly and let it set.
Layer the lobster slices slanting in the mold and fill with aspic.
Place the mold on ice until firm.
Unmold and serve
Dip the mold in warm water and turn the aspic out onto a dish.
Fill the center with finely cut salad and top with more lobster.
Drizzle with sauce mayonnaise a la gelée, avoiding the aspic.
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.
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Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,484 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,895 recipes
Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster slices
- Provide the main filling and visible centrepiece of the set aspic.
- Clear aspic jelly
- Sets into a clear, firm gel that holds the dish together and gives it shine.
- White sauce
- Coats the lobster so it stays moist and pale against the clear jelly.
- Whites of hard-boiled eggs
- Add a white decorative contrast cut into shapes, with no change to the set.
The step that matters
Place the mold on ice until firm. The aspic must chill fully before unmolding; if it is not firm, it can tear or slump when turned out, and layers can shift. Gelatin sets reliably only when cold enough.
“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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