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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are small, fried balls of lobster meat mixed with bread crumbs, butter, and eggs, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chopped lobster meat with pepper, salt, and mace if desired in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs until well combined.

  3. Form the mixture into pointed balls.

Coat

  1. Coat the balls with melted butter.

  2. Roll the balls in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat the balls with cracker dust.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls in butter or sweet lard until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with crisp parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 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

Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and protein that forms the body of the croquette.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the lobster so the balls hold their shape.
Eggs
Bind the coating layer and help the cracker dust adhere for an even crust.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the outside brown evenly during frying.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the crumb and egg coating through the Maillard reaction while the cooked lobster warms through. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and greasy; too much burns the outside before the centre is hot.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, pepper, bread, butter, egg, parsley):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, bread, butter, egg, parsley. 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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