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Lobster Soup

A hearty soup made with onions, beef, ham, butter, stock, haddock, lobster, cayenne pepper, wine, and lobster tail and claws.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the onions, beef, ham, and butter.

  2. Cook until the onions are soft.

  3. Mix in the rich stock, then boil, skim, and strain through a sieve.

Add the lobster and finish

  1. In a mortar, beat the haddock meat, lobster spawn, and body until smooth.

  2. Gradually add this mixture to the soup and stir until smooth.

  3. Bring the soup to a boil again, skim, and add cayenne pepper and wine.

  4. Finally, add the lobster tail and claws, cut into fine pieces, and serve 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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Haddock + lobstertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and sweeten, forming the body of the soup base.
Lobster spawn and body
Pounded smooth, they enrich the soup with a deep shellfish flavour and colour.
Haddock meat
Beaten smooth into the mixture, adding body and a fine, even texture to the soup.
Rich stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the other flavours.
Lobster tail and claws
Add fresh, tender pieces of lobster meat for texture and sweet shellfish flavour.

The step that matters

Straining and skimming the stock. Straining removes solids and skimming removes fat and impurities that would cloud the soup and dull its flavour. Doing this before the fish mixture goes in keeps the soup smooth and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, butter, meat, haddock, lobster, pepper):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, butter, meat, haddock, lobster, 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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