Why it works: Lobster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Lobster Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Pound and strain
Pound the lobster flesh and inside in a mortar until well mixed.
Add the butter and pound again until fully combined.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
Pound the reddest part of the shell with the mixture if the lobster has no coral.
Heat and set
Place the butter in a bowl.
Set it in a boiling bain-marie for 30 minutes, then remove from heat.
Strain through a cloth into a bowl of cold water.
Shape
Stir the butter until it hardens.
Shape it into a ball.
Wipe it dry.
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.
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Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster flesh
- Supplies the main lobster flavour and fine texture to the butter.
- Butter
- Forms the fat base that carries the flavour and firms up as it cools.
- Lobster inside
- Adds concentrated, rich lobster flavour.
- Reddest part of lobster shell
- Adds colour and extra lobster aroma when pounded into the mixture.
The step that matters
Heating in the bain-marie. The butter must be held hot long enough for the lobster flavour to infuse. Heat that is too fierce can scorch the milk solids in butter, leaving a bitter taste and a cloudy result.
“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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