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Lobster Balls

Small balls of lobster meat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

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

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster.

  2. Pound the meat in a mortar with the coral and spawn.

  3. Mix in almost an equal amount of bread crumbs and the seasoning.

  4. Bind the mixture with the butter, warmed almost to melting.

Shape and coat

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls, slightly smaller than a hen's egg.

  2. Brush the balls with beaten egg.

  3. Cover the balls with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls lightly.

  2. Drain excess grease.

  3. Serve very hot on a napkin.

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

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hen lobster
Provides the main meat and flavour of the balls.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the balls body, plus a crisp outer coating.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping bind the mixture and keep it tender.

The step that matters

Bind the mixture with the butter, warmed almost to melting.. Butter that is too hot can separate or make the mixture greasy, while butter that is too cold will not spread evenly through it. Warming it just short of melting keeps the mixture cohesive and tender.

“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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