Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Patties

A dish of cooked lobster mixed with white sauce, mustard, and cayenne, spooned into shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the lobster, white sauce, mustard, and cayenne.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until hot, stirring.

Serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into shells and serve.

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 + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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
Provides the main texture and rich seafood flavor of the filling.
White sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy base that binds the filling together.
Mustard
Adds a sharp note that balances the richness of the sauce and lobster.

The step that matters

Heat over medium heat while stirring. A flour-thickened white sauce can scorch on the bottom of the pan or form lumps if heated too fast without stirring. Lobster turns tough and rubbery when overheated, so heat only until the mixture is hot through.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Horseradishfits less well
  4. Lettucefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes