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Lobster Croquettes

A fried appetizer of lobster mixed with butter, flour, milk, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the filling

  1. Drain the canned lobster and chop it finely.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the lobster, salt, and pepper.

  6. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into small croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the croquettes until golden brown.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavor and the filling's substance.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a binding white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid that thickens with flour into a creamy binder.
Egg
Helps the breadcrumb coating adhere and sets to form a crisp shell.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft filling is too loose to hold its shape, so the croquettes may break or leak during coating and frying. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce firm up enough to handle.

“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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