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Lobster Cream

A steamed lobster cream made with lobster, butter, flour, milk, cream, egg yolks, and seasonings.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and half the milk, stirring over heat until it forms a thick paste that pulls away from the sides of the pan.

  3. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut one claw of the lobster into small dice and set aside.

  2. Pound the remaining lobster meat in a mortar with the paste, egg yolks, and seasonings.

  3. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve into a bowl, then fold in the lobster dice, remaining milk, and cream gently.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for about 1 hour.

  2. Ensure the saucepan has a tight-fitting lid and the water reaches halfway up the mold.

  3. Serve with a suitable sauce.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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
Provides the main flesh and sweet, savoury flavour of the cream.
Flour
Cooked with butter and milk to form a thick paste that thickens the mixture.
Egg yolks
Set during gentle steaming to give the cream a firm, sliceable body.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavour, and coats the mold to prevent sticking.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the set texture of the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel to the finished mixture.

The step that matters

Steam gently with the water halfway up the mold. Egg yolks set smoothly at moderate heat. Vigorous boiling or too little water can make the cream rough, pitted or uneven, so keep the heat gentle and the lid tight.

“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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