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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls made from preserved lobster, eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince the lobster meat.

  2. In a bowl, mix the minced lobster with warmed butter, pounded hard-boiled yolks, lemon juice, and seasonings. Add the raw egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Stir in the breadcrumbs until combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into oblong balls or rolls.

  2. Roll each croquette in flour.

  3. Fry in hot lard until golden brown.

  4. Drain on clean paper 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Preserved lobster
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Raw egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness to the filling.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a fine, crumbly texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the filling.

The step that matters

Shape and fry the croquettes. The mixture is soft, so it must be chilled or firm enough to shape and coated evenly in flour. If it is too wet or the fat is not hot enough, the croquettes can fall apart or absorb grease instead of browning quickly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, butter, lemon, 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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