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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are minced lobster shaped into patties, coated in breadcrumbs, fried, and served with a thin custard sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Mince the lobster finely and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Mix in enough drawn butter to make the mixture stick together.

  3. Shape the mixture into cutlets using your hands.

  4. Roll the cutlets in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cutlets in hot lard until golden brown.

  2. Make a thin custard sauce and season with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.

  3. Pour the sauce over the cutlets before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  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

Lobster
Forms the main body of the cutlets and gives them their rich seafood flavour.
Drawn butter
Binds the minced lobster so the mixture holds its shape when shaped.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp golden coating that browns during frying.
Hot lard
Fries the coated cutlets, conducting heat to brown and crisp the outside.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the breadcrumb coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it browns, while the lobster inside may stay underdone. Hot fat sets the crumb quickly and browns it through Maillard reactions.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, butter, bread, parsley):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, butter, bread, parsley. 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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