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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are a savory dish of lobster, mushrooms, and truffles mixed with butter, flour, stock, cream, egg, and parsley, then shaped, breaded, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, stirring until smooth.

  3. Pour in the white stock and cream, mixing well.

  4. Add the parsley, beaten egg, and enough chopped lobster, mushrooms, and truffles to make 1 pint.

  5. Cook for a few minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture onto a platter.

  7. Let it cool completely.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into cutlets.

  2. Dip the cutlets in breadcrumbs.

  3. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg.

  4. Dip the cutlets in breadcrumbs again.

Fry

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

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

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the stock and cream into a binding paste that holds the cutlets together.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour while the flour cooks into the mixture.
White stock
Provides the liquid that, with the flour, sets the mixture into a firm, shapeable base.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a softer, smoother texture.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling and, as a coating, helps breadcrumbs stick and brown during frying.
Chopped lobster, mushrooms, and truffles
Form the main filling, contributing flavour, aroma and body to the cutlets.

The step that matters

Let it cool completely before shaping. A warm, loose mixture will not hold its shape. Cooling lets the flour-thickened base firm up so the cutlets keep their form through coating and frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, cream, egg, lobster, mushroom. 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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