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Shell Fish

A lobster curry served on toasted slices or crisped crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Shell Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry sauce

  1. In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the minced onion and cook until it turns yellow.

  3. Mix the flour and curry powder, then stir into the hot butter.

  4. Add the hot milk or cream and stir until thick and smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the diced lobster meat and heat thoroughly.

  2. Serve on toasted slices or crisped crackers.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 protein and sweet, delicate flavor of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a smooth, creamy sauce when cooked with butter.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and cooks the onion and flour as the base of the roux.

The step that matters

Stir in the hot milk or cream. Adding liquid to a flour and butter mixture can form lumps if not stirred constantly. Stirring while the liquid heats lets the starch hydrate evenly, producing a thick, smooth sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, flour, milk, meat):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, milk, meat. 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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