Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Scalloped in Shells

A baked lobster dish served in its shells with a creamy sauce, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Scalloped in Shells

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a white roux.

  3. Gradually add the hot stock and scalded milk to the roux, seasoning with salt and paprika.

  4. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Fill and bake

  1. Stir in the beaten egg yolks, lobster dice, minced parsley, and lemon juice.

  2. Fill the cleaned lobster shells with the mixture.

  3. Top with fine breadcrumbs, dot with butter, and sprinkle with cayenne.

  4. Bake until golden brown.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 meat
Provides the main filling and sweet, savory flavor of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavor to the sauce and topping.
Flour
Thickens the stock and milk into a smooth white sauce as part of the roux.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a creamy, set texture when baked.
Milk
Adds body and creaminess to the sauce, softening its flavor.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so adding them to a boiling sauce can scramble them and leave graininess. Cooling the sauce slightly first lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.

“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

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes