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Lobster Sauce

A sauce made from hard‑boiled egg yolks, butter or oil, mustard, lobster spawn, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lobster Sauce

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Add melted butter or salad oil and mustard, mixing well.

  3. Incorporate the lobster spawn and vinegar.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

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.

  1. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + lobstertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed yolks form the thick, creamy base that emulsifies the sauce.
Butter or salad oil
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and yolk mixture together.
Lobster spawn
Provides the main flavour and colour of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the richness of the yolk and fat.

The step that matters

Adding the butter or oil and mustard. Fat must be whisked into the mashed yolks gradually so the emulsion forms smoothly; adding it too fast can cause it to separate and turn greasy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, lobster, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, lobster, vinegar, pepper. 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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