Julia Child’s Lobster Thermidor NEEDED To Be Saved!

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I’ve made Julia Child’s Lobster Thermidor before, but I have truly never HAD Lobster Thermidor before, as I completely butchered the recipe the first time… it was time for redemption! This recipe can be found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking V1.

My first attempt at Lobster Thermidor 😅: https://youtu.be/Pw3FGkyAWPw

00:00 Intro
01:55 Steaming the Lobster
04:01 Made-In
05:24 Recipe
16:13 Order Up!

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Ingredients:
(for 6 people)
Steaming Lobster:
3 cups dry white wine or 2 cups dry white vermouth
2 cups water
1 large onion , thinly sliced
1 medium carrot , thinly sliced
1 stalk celery , thinly sliced
6 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp. thyme
6 peppercorns
1 Tbsp. fresh or dried tarragon
3 live lobsters , 2 pounds each

Mushrooms:
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt

Sauce:
5 Tbsp. butter
6 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cream
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 to 6 Tbsp. more whipping cream
Pinch cayenne pepper
4 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup cognac

Gratineéd:
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese
2 Tbsp. butter , dotted

I think it’s time to redo this one a posh French Lobster dish that I may have butchered the first time around I’m sorry Julia oh hi everyone welcome back to my home and what is your home for this next little pocket of time that we have together let’s dig into JC’s mastering

In the art of French cooking we’re going to make lobster thermador again so many steps are involved in the preparation of a really Splendid lobster thermador no wonder it costs a fortune in any restaurant and she says this uh 1961 when this book was published so a

Fortune then would be all the money now I believe uh it’s not a particularly difficult dish to execute but I feel like she says that in every recipe here so take that for whatever it’s worth I had a very difficult time trying to execute this recipe the first time so

This was very early in the Julia Child Adventure when I made this thing and I did as about a terrible job as anyone has ever done with this recipe I don’t think there is one thing I did correctly in that video except turn the camera on

That day other than that uh yeah just wipe that from my memory I had to rewatch that video it’s a tough watch I had to like pry my eyes open like it was Clockwork Orange just to get through it next up you need to get the lobster

Shells which I already threw into the garbage some coffee grinds in there but it’s going to be fine I’m here to write some wrongs today you’re probably wondering what the hell happened to my thumb did the lobster get me no uh but you can head over to my Instagram to find out a

Little more detail or find out in the next episode next week you’ll get your answers there too anyway let’s get the lobster there it is one and A2 pounder and I just want to act fast with this this guy just to put it out of its misery in the freezer for like 20

Minutes half an hour just to knock it out it’s going to go to sleep then we can proceed good luck but we’re not cooking it alive today in the biggest pot I got I’m going to add in 2 cups of water 2 to 3ish cups

Of Dy white wine this is a 7on Blan Celery Stock carrot and onion thinly sliced six peppercorns 1/4 t tpoon of thyme six parsley sprigs tablespoon of dried Teragon one bay leaf no add two you know why simmering for 15 minutes before I get it up to a rolling Boil the lobster is completely out cold and this is the worst part but just get it over with and yeah we’re going to stick a knife through the head we’re to stick a knife through the the head of this Lobster prior to cooking it so that

We just make sure doubly first time that I did this it was a challenge it’s still always a challenge but just do it take my knife point it down where there’s a little opening on the top part of that shell there near the head and go through

The eyes and I’m going to hold the lobster and I’m just going to go right through all right the sooner you do it the better for everyone involved your strong hand is Going it’s over with okay let’s get it into the pot a tight fitting lid this is a new technique for me but those vegetables on the very bottom of that pot I guess act like a steaming rack I got to boil that for she says 20 minutes but that’s for a

Two pounder mine’s a one and a halfer so uh like 12 to 15 minutes or so I just woo I don’t want anything tasting like a rubber band so off go the elastics and get those out I would like to thank the sponsor of today’s video maiden maiden designs

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Quarter them but also take the stem and quarter the stem in this pan here tablespoon of butter add in the mushrooms 1/4 teaspoon of salt teaspoon of lemon juice that will keep them white stew slowly for 10 minutes get that Lobster Pot sa Lobster up to a boil strain in the mushroom cooking

Juices and then what do I do with the mushrooms you can just keep the mushrooms in there and then off to the side saucepan and the SI that will work interesting okay now we’re going to strain the lobster cooking juices and the mushroom cooking juices into a saucepan wo wo easy easy

You know what just out of curiosity I wanted to check how much that is it says 2 and 1/4 cup worth that’s exactly what I needed to a simmer back and forth back and forth to get the recipe off the ground I just wanted to stick to everything that Julia was

Saying except for the fact that she’s using three lobsters and I only got the one so going forward I’m going to half everything so a bigger saucepan or how about the sauser 2 and 1/2 tbsp of butter and then 3 tbspoon of flour cook that slowly back over here 2 minutes but

Not to brown it nope uh I want a rue I need to make my Rue give me space while I make my Rue my simmering stock so I need just over Okay cooking shows can be awkward sometimes so with the cooking juices I need just over a cup

Worth just over a cup worth bead it together Come On Come Together come together bring this to a boil cooking this like so for a minute and back I come over here with with my smooth ass Volute it’s a Volute everyone few years ago when I made this thing it did not

Look like that it looked like crap in all honesty I do not know what this is so I’m going to film the top of it with some heavy cream it’s kind of protects it so that doesn’t you know form a thick skin on the top or dry out or anything

Like that okay what are we doing cover that and set it aside now there’s two different ways to proceed with this thing I can do what the cookbook says which is to slice it in half lengthwise but keeping the shells intact or you flip it upside down and in her show she

Uses scissors to remove the soft underbelly here and this area here you kind of just open it up and remove all the meat and then you have one big piece got to think ahead of how you’re going to serve this thing because the shell is what’s going to hold the meat uh yeah

I’m going to split in half lengthwise just like the cookbook how did that fall off sharp pair of scissors works like wonders nice clean cut right through keep the shell intact you punk there you go perfect you know what just like a a Sie in a bowl perfect the green matter which is

The tale you want to keep that you can get that into your Sie off to the side through the middle of the tail there’s this intestinal tube you see you want to get rid of that should be a sand sack where’s the sand sack where is that sand sack is that it

That’s got to be it there directly behind the eyes is the stomach aka the sand sack you don’t want that gently remove the tail meat oh yeah remove the claws put that over there for a second push the bottom part of the claw backwards and you should pull

Out nope didn’t really work the meat should have came out with it so yeah kind of want to save part of this claw for when we serve so just be gentle with it when you’re opening it keep the claw meat intact but gently pull it out all

Right mostly intact cool so for the beauty of the dish you could keep these claw pieces relatively whole yeah keep them whole makes it look a little nicer in the end everything else I need to dice into cubes Cube shapes or whatever shapes honestly whatever shapes keep that close last

Time I made this recipe I threw these into the trash I don’t know why I guess I didn’t really read the recipe here’s the meat the meat keep them out of the garbage keep the coffee grinds off them and I’m also going to keep these little

Claws even though they have meat on them I’m going to keep them on these halves and if you want to eat the meat after by all means but yeah it’s kind of for the appearance when I’m serving it you know anyway I got the tamale in a Sie I need

To pass it through just because there might be little pieces of shell or whatever in that tamale and then let’s uh grab it into my bowl bit of a Flavor Boost you know sometimes you call it green matter sometimes you call it the tamale keeping in mind that I am halfing

Everything going forward I am only using one Lobster and if I were to half this recipe it would be one and a half lobsters so just be aware that when you’re adding all these other ingredients just make sure it all looks right I’m talking to myself I picked a very challenging recipe to

Make when you only have one thumb egg yolk in with the tamale along with a/ quar cup of heavy cream dry mustard half a tablespoon worth pinch of cayenne pepper so just put that aside for a hot second I’m bringing the Volute back up

Uh to like a simmer uh so that it can turn into a sauce again and not just a clump so I’m going to do that uh because I need to work with it have some of this leftover cooking stock from earlier why don’t I add some of that into here and

Then bring it up to a boil does that bring it back to life please tell me it does it should get you where it needs to get you I think it’s kind of just yeah it’s going to need a little work isn’t it this mixture with the

Tamale and the egg yolk I’m going to add some of this hot futee into it now just to temper it whisk that maybe just add a little bit more so what I’m doing now is just passing everything through the Sie because it was looking a bit you know

What she has no mention of this but letting the Volute cool down completely turning it into solid mass and then you have to kind of troubleshoot how to get it out of that by adding some of the leftover stock and bringing that to a boil it still didn’t look perfect and

Then I have this other thing where the dried mustard and the tamale is still a bit clumpy too so I find that if I just do this I’m going to have the smoothest sauce around bring it up to a boil 2 minutes don’t stop stirring until it’s thick

Enough to coat the back of a spoon oh we have no problems there probably turn off the heat now and then season with some salt white pepper thinning the sauce out with heavy cream a couple tablespoons worth oh yeah oh yeah it’s amazing now this has a big kick to

It because of the cayenne and the mustard and it’s awesome although in the show not the book she says that her sauce needed a little hoot of lemon juice so we’re going to turn the heat off once it’s up to your liking and she says film the top with a spoonful of

Heavy cream again didn’t really work last time but yeah I’ll do it happy to do it I just leave this here I think some sort of frying pan couple tablespoons of butter melt that butter on a moderate heat until it starts to foam and then in goes the lobster meat

Start stirring the lobster meat around in the butter for like 5 minutes until it’s Rosy looking okay very classic Julia moment here she says if you have a good conac use it if you don’t have a good conac get the hell out of here she says no she doesn’t she just says don’t

Use the CAC if that’s the case so I bought some uh Hennessy heo and I only need a half of what she’s using which is 1/3 cup so one six cup pour that in W yeah woo Flume I was not expecting that for some reason I totally just didn’t think that

Was going to happen I don’t know why let’s boil this for a minute or two shaking the skillet and reducing the liquid by half fold in the cooked mushrooms although I’m only using half these she says the mushrooms make it look like there’s more meat it totally

Does of course we’re not done adding things from one thing to another thing here’s some of the sauce 2/3 of the sauce no I don’t think the Heat’s supposed to be on turn the heat off careful that you’re not splitting anything because the butter and the

Sauce are not going to commingle if they don’t like each other they seem to be getting along next up I need some sort of shallow roasting pan Pizza Pan Heap the lobster mixture into the shells so I want one of the big pieces of The Lobster Claw meat on top

To kind of show it off and same with this side too where’s that there it is and then let’s take the remaining sauce and that goes on top in the show she literally covers everything with this sauce and then we’re going to gratina these so parmesan cheese on top spare no

Expense of course I guess if you want to dot with some butter you can I will cuz she says to do it this Lobster is going in the oven 425° F until the top starts to get a nice Brown to it and the sauce is

Bubbling she says 10 to 15 minutes but I think I’m going to eyeball it I might even get nuts and put the broiler on looks beautiful yeah I mean doesn’t get much better than that right what I’m going to do is occupy the corners with some whole parsley leaves I got some

Lemon slices here uh I don’t know just kind of getting creative here and then chopped parsley as well that’s that’s it order Up oh to Myself so that’s what it’s supposed to taste like this is incredible say Magna that’s a French Masterpiece right there nothing beats a good lobster dish honestly the best dish that I made last year was a lobster dish and here we are again with lobster this just no shortage

Of lobster flavor in there it does not get disguised and I think it was the first time I made this I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t pick up on the lobster I thought it was a waste of lobster meat or something not this time it’s all up in there and those mushrooms the

Mushrooms if they weren’t there I’d be thinking where the hell are the shrooms because they needed to be there in fact everything did the cream sauce was the best Julia Child cream sauce I’ve made so far on this series I’m pretty sure it had like a j qua quality to it I can’t

Pick up exactly what that was was it the tamale was it the like lobster and mushroom cooking stock added the conac was it something else was it all of anyway that was a very Posh old school fancy French delicious incredible dinner this was Jamie and Julia bone appetite over no