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Lobster a LA Newburg

A creamy lobster dish flavored with sherry, egg yolks, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster a LA Newburg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the shells of the lobsters and cut into one-inch pieces.

  2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the lobster pieces.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Pour in the sherry and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix in the cream and baking soda.

  2. Stir the egg and cream mixture into the lobster, cooking until it thickens.

  3. Serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main protein and meaty texture of the dish.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream sauce as they cook, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, forming the base of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping cook the lobster gently in the pan.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma, rounding out the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg and cream mixture into the lobster. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if the heat is too high or they are cooked too long, they can scramble and turn the sauce grainy. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly until the sauce coats a spoon.

“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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