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Creamed Lobster

A chilled lobster mousse with whipped cream, gelatin, anchovy sauce, and cayenne, served in a mold with mayonnaise filling and green pea garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Creamed Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the lobster meat finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped lobster, whipped cream, soaked gelatin, anchovy sauce, salt, and cayenne.

  3. Stir gently until nearly set.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a lightly oiled border mold.

  2. Once set, turn out the mold and fill the center with mayonnaise.

  3. Garnish with mashed green peas and arrange the lobster claws around the outside.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Gelatin + saucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and the body of the dish.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the mixture.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess to the filling in the centre.

The step that matters

Stir gently until nearly set. Gelatin begins to set as it cools, so the mixture must be stirred gently and poured before it stiffens. Stirring it too late leaves lumps, and pouring too late means it will not fill the mold evenly. Folding the whipped cream in gently keeps it from deflating.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, cream, gelatin, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, cream, gelatin, anchovy, sauce. 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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