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Lobster Canapes

Lobster canapes are toasted bread topped with seasoned lobster, butter, egg white, and cheese, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce 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 Canapes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the lobster meat and season with coarse sea salt, paprika, and lemon juice.

  2. Moisten the lobster mixture with a thick white sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the mixture on the toasted bread, rounding it slightly like a meringue.

  2. Mix a small portion of beaten egg white into the creamed butter. Spread the egg white butter over the lobster mixture.

  3. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

  4. Brown delicately in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main savoury filling that gives the canapes their flavour.
Thick white sauce
Moistens the lobster so the filling stays soft and cohesive rather than dry.
Egg white
Whipped into the butter, it helps the topping set and brown lightly in the oven.
Creamed butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the egg white topping and aiding browning.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and golden colour.

The step that matters

Brown delicately in a 350°F (175°C) oven. Browning relies on heat and surface sugars and proteins; too high a heat or too long scorches the cheese and butter before the filling warms through. Watch closely and remove once golden.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, sauce, bread, butter, egg, cheese):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, sauce, bread, butter, egg, cheese. 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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