Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lobster Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lobster liquor
Pound the soft part and shell of the lobster in a mortar until very fine.
Place the pounded mixture in a stewpan and cover with boiling water.
Simmer over heat for 10 minutes, then strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a basin.
Make the sauce
In a clean stewpan, rub the butter and flour together until smooth.
Add the lobster liquor to the butter mixture and heat, stirring until just boiling.
Season with cayenne and add the anchovy butter and lemon juice just before serving.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provides the main flavour of the sauce from its soft part and shell.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and the lobster liquor into a smooth sauce.
- Anchovy butter
- Adds savoury depth that enhances the seafood flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
The step that matters
Rub the butter and flour until smooth before adding the liquor. Flour must be fully blended with the fat so it does not form lumps; cooking it with the hot liquid then gives an even, thickened sauce.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, flour, pepper, anchovy, lemon):
- Walnutthe original
- Almondfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, pepper, anchovy, lemon. 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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