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Lobster a LA Newburg

A lobster dish with butter, cream, egg yolk, sherry, and flour-based sauce.

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

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut the lobster into pieces about the size of a hickory nut.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and add the lobster pieces.

Make the Newburg

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then thicken with heavy cream.

  2. Stir in the egg yolk and sherry wine.

Make the cream sauce

  1. For the cream sauce, melt 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Mix in the flour and thin down with boiling cream to the proper consistency.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when melted with the lobster and in the sauce.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness, thickening the mixture into a creamy texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce as it gently heats, giving it a smooth body.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the cream and butter.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce by forming a roux with the melted butter.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat. If the cream is too hot when it goes in, the yolk can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth. Stir it in off the heat or over low heat.

“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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