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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls of lobster meat coated in egg and cracker crumbs, served dry with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Lobster and meat work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 909 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the lobster meat as in the stuffed lobster recipe, omitting the cream.

  2. Form the mixture into pointed balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in very hot lard until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve dry, garnished with 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. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  2. Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,040 recipes

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

  3. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  4. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

  5. Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Forms the main filling and gives the croquettes their flavor.
Egg
Binds the coating so the crumbs stick and set during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Lard
Conducts heat to brown and crisp the coating quickly.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot lard. Very hot fat sets the egg coating and browns the crumbs quickly, before the filling heats through and the coating absorbs grease. Fat that is not hot enough makes the croquettes soggy and greasy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, egg. 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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