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Lobster Chops

A dish of lobster meat formed into chop shapes, coated in cracker dust, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster base

  1. In a pan, fry the sliced onion and chopped parsley in butter for 1 minute.

  2. Add flour and stir until it turns pale brown.

  3. Heat the cream or milk in another vessel, then gradually pour it onto the roux and stir until smooth.

  4. Remove the cream from heat and stir in the beaten yolks.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Season the lobster meat with salt, cayenne, mace, and lemon juice, then mix in the lobster and a large spoonful of fine bread crumbs.

Shape and chill

  1. Chill until firm.

  2. Shape the mixture into mutton chop forms.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip in whipped egg.

  2. Coat with cracker dust.

  3. Chill again for several hours.

  4. Fry in hot cottolene until golden brown.

  5. Insert a claw into the small end of each chop.

Serve

  1. Serve with sauce tartare and deviled crackers.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the roux and carries the onion and parsley flavour into the base.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a roux-based binder that holds the chops together.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and richness so the mixture sets soft yet holds its shape.
Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the chops.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm cream and help the mixture set firm when chilled.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture can be shaped.

The step that matters

Chill until firm before shaping. The mixture is soft when warm. Chilling lets the egg yolks and starch set so the chops keep their shape and do not fall apart in the hot fat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter, flour, cream, lobster, meat, 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.

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