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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster meat cutlets coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. If using fresh lobster, remove the meat from the shell and reserve the claws and feelers for garnishing.

  2. Chop the lobster meat.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, blend the butter and flour, then add the milk and bring to a boil for 3 minutes.

  2. Stir in the cream, lemon juice, salt, and red pepper, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Spread the mixture on a plate and allow it to cool until firm.

Shape and fry

  1. Once firm, divide into 12 equal parts and shape into cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet into the egg and then coat with cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in deep fat until light 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.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavor to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that sets firm when cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it boils.
Egg
Binds the cutlet coating so the crumbs adhere before frying.
Lobster
Provides the main seafood flavor and texture of the cutlets.

The step that matters

Cooling the filling until firm. The mixture must be fully chilled and set before shaping, or the cutlets will be soft and fall apart when dipped and fried.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, milk, egg, cream, pepper, flour):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, milk, egg, cream, pepper, flour. 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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