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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried rolls of minced lobster, eggs, and bread crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg and sea salt.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the minced lobster meat, beaten eggs, and softened bread crumbs.

  2. Season the mixture with nutmeg and coarse sea salt, ensuring it is very stiff.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into rolls.

  2. Dip each roll in beaten egg, then roll in flour.

  3. Fry the rolls in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with lobster sauce and garnish 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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and the protein that firms up to hold the croquette shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and set during cooking to give structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture hold together as a stiff paste.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the egg layer grip and promotes browning when fried.

The step that matters

Make the mixture very stiff before shaping. If the mixture is too wet, the rolls will be soft and may break apart or burst in hot oil. A firm mixture holds its shape, and the bread crumbs help absorb excess moisture so the croquettes stay intact while frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, egg, bread, nutmeg, 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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