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Lobster Cutlets and Croquettes

Lobster meat shaped into cutlets, coated in a creamy sauce, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets and Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Add the water, cream, and white wine; stir until thick and smooth.

  3. Beat in the egg yolks and the bruised coral until well combined.

  4. Heat the mixture until it reaches boiling point, then pour it onto a buttered plate to cool and harden.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cold, flour your hands and shape the mixture into cutlets resembling small lamb cutlets.

  2. Insert a small lobster claw into the end of each cutlet to represent the bone.

  3. Carefully arrange the cutlets in a frying basket and fry in very hot fat until golden.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

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 meat
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the croquette filling.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the mixture into a firm, sliceable base.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when cooled.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture until fully cold and hard before shaping. The starch-thickened mixture must set completely on the buttered plate; if it is still warm or soft it will not hold its shape and may fall apart when shaped and fried.

“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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