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Turban of Lobster

A baked lobster dish shaped like a turban, made with bread crumbs, cream, lobster meat, eggs, and white sauce.

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 ↓

Turban of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster base

  1. Cook the bread crumbs and cream together.

  2. Add the pounded lobster meat, salt, pepper, and beaten egg whites.

  3. Line a border mold with the mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Arrange lobster tail cut into collops in the center.

  2. Stir the egg yolks and whole egg into the white sauce.

  3. Pour the sauce over the lobster collops.

  4. Bake in a water bath until firm.

  5. Let stand briefly.

Serve

  1. Unmold and serve with butter or cream sauce.

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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten whites add structure and help the mixture set firm when baked.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the white sauce and help it set into a smooth, custard-like texture.
Whole egg
Egg proteins bind the sauce and help it set firm when baked.
Bread crumbs
Crumbs absorb the cream and give the border body and a tender, sliceable structure.
White sauce
Provides moisture and richness, and its starch and egg help the filling set smoothly.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath until firm. Egg-based mixtures set from the outside in and can curdle or turn grainy if baked too hot. A gentle water bath moderates the heat so the custard sets evenly and stays 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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