Why it works: Sauce and lobster 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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Remove the coral from the lobster, wash it, and pound it with the butter.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Remove the meat from the tail and claws of the lobster, and cut it into small pieces.
Make the sauce
Warm the Béchamel sauce, then add the coral-butter mixture and mix well.
Add the lobster pieces, warm thoroughly, season, and serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Béchamel sauce
- Forms the creamy base that carries the lobster flavour through the sauce.
- Lobster
- Supplies the main flavour and the tender meat pieces folded into the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the lobster coral's rich flavour and adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Warming the lobster pieces. Heating the sauce too hard or for too long can toughen the lobster meat and make the sauce separate, so warm it gently until just heated through.
“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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