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Scalloped Lobster

A dish of lobster meat from hen lobsters, cooked briefly in a sauce of butter, wine, lemon juice and strained shell broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Scalloped Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster in large pieces.

  2. Boil the shells in 1 pint of water with a blade of mace and some whole peppercorns.

  3. Strain the liquid after extracting the flavors from the shells and spices.

Make and serve

  1. Mix the coral and rich part of the lobster with a few tablespoons of melted butter, white wine, and strained lemon juice.

  2. Add the picked lobster to the mixture, boil it briefly, and serve.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its flavor.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and gives a smooth texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich lobster and butter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the butter and coral.

The step that matters

Add the picked lobster and boil it briefly. Lobster meat is tender and overcooks quickly, turning firm and rubbery if boiled too long. A brief heat is enough to warm it through and combine it with the sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, white wine, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, white wine, 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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