Lobster Newburg Recipe (or Lobster Newberg)

First served at Delmonico's in New York, this now-classic lobster recipe originally started out as Lobster Wenberg, named after one of the restaurant's best clients, but changed name somewhere along the line!

There are several versions of the Lobster Newburg recipe - as there are always with classics. The one given here we think is actually better than the original, which was prepared with a table-cooker.

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients

meat from 1 cooked lobster, diced
1/4 pint sherry
1/4 pint double cream
1/4 pint single cream
3 egg yolks
4 oz butter
salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat the lobster flesh with half the butter in a pan.

Cut the rest of the butter into small pieces and keep to the side.

Add the sherry to the lobster flesh in the pan and reduce quickly to about half its quantity, tipping the pan as you do it so the lobster meat doesn't boil too much.

Beat the egg yolks and add the single cream. Pour the double cream into the pan followed by the cream and egg mix, turn down the heat and allow to thicken.

When you are ready to serve, take the pan off the heat and add the little pieces of butter, stirring all the while.

Lobster Newburg is traditionally served on buttered toast as an appetiser, or with rice as a main course.

Alternative version cooking the lobster from live

The ingredients are the same as above, but the lobster should be live, and you will need a glass of brandy in addition to the sherry.

Cut the lobster in pieces: first cut the head from the body (this kills the lobster), then crack the large claws and cut the body into segments across the joints.

Split the head down the middle; remove the intestine and the sack of grit from the head. Remove the coral and mix it with the the butter; put to the side. (For a more humane way of killing the lobster read the notes here).

Cook the pieces of lobster in the pan. Warm the brandy, pour over the lobster in the pan and light. When the flames have died down, add the sherry.

Remove the cooked lobster and take the flesh off the shell. Make the sauce as above, stirring in the coral butter at the end, and pour over the lobster flesh before serving.