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Made From Canned Lobsters

A dish of lobster meat formed into cutlets, coated in eggs and cracker crumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Made From Canned Lobsters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster mixture

  1. Mince the lobster meat finely and season with salt and spice.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then mix in the flour.

  3. Add the lobster, parsley, and a little stock; bring to a boil.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the yolks of the eggs.

  5. Spread the mixture in a shallow pan and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cold, cut into cutlets and shape them.

  2. Dip the cutlets carefully in beaten eggs, then in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot lard until they are a rich brown color.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Meat of canned lobsters
Forms the main body and flavor of the cutlets.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries the flour into a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock so the mixture can set when cooled.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the mixture, and beaten eggs help crumbs adhere for frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and encourages a rich brown crust.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool fully before shaping. The mixture is thickened with flour and set by egg yolks. If it is not cold and firm, the cutlets will be soft and will fall apart when shaped, dipped, and fried.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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