Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are baked lobster meat patties topped with breadcrumbs and butter, served with a mustard‑Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Combine 2 lobsters, 1 pinch cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, and 2 handfuls moistened and pressed bread crumbs in a saucepan. Stir steadily while boiling for 5 minutes.

  2. Add 4 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Mix well.

Bake the cutlets

  1. Fill prepared shells with the mixture, sprinkle with additional bread crumbs, and dot with butter.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 8–10 minutes until slightly brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Sauté 1 tablespoon chopped shallots in 1 ounce melted butter until slightly brown.

  2. Add 2 ladlefuls Espagnole sauce, 1 ladleful broth, 2 tablespoons mixed mustard, a dash of red pepper, and a little Worcestershire sauce. Stir and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Press the sauce through a napkin and stir in chopped parsley. Serve hot.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main body of the filling, cooked and chopped into pieces.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling so it holds together and sets when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds its shape.
Espagnole sauce
Forms the rich, savoury base of the sauce served with the cutlets.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until just slightly brown. Egg yolks set when heated, so the filling can turn dry or rubbery if overbaked. Stop at the point the record gives, as the topping browns quickly.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipes