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A Fricasse of Lobster

A lobster fricasse is a creamy lobster stew made with lobster meat, cream, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

A Fricasse of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Parboil the lobsters for 10 minutes per pound.

  2. Remove all the meat and coral from the lobsters.

  3. Cut the lobster meat into small pieces.

Make the fricassee

  1. Place the meat in a saucepan with the coral.

  2. Pour the cream over the lobster meat and coral.

  3. Cover and let it stew gently for the same time it took to cook the lobsters.

  4. Add the lemon juice and cayenne pepper to taste.

  5. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  6. Serve very hot.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + lemontop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Lobsters
Provide the main body of the dish, with tender meat and coral for flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture as it gently stews with the lobster.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream and sweet lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Gentle stewing after adding the cream. Cream can curdle or turn grainy if it boils hard, so it should stew gently and simmer rather than boil. Keeping the heat low helps the lobster stay tender and the sauce smooth.

“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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