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Plain Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets made by coating lobster meat with egg and seasoned breadcrumbs and frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Plain Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the tail and claws of the lobster.

  2. Slice the meat into pieces about ⅓ inch thick.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the pieces into beaten eggs, then into fine bread crumbs seasoned with cayenne, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Repeat the egg and crumb coating twice.

  3. Fry the cutlets quickly in butter until light brown.

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

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body of the cutlet and provides its rich, sweet flavour.
Eggs
Bind the crumb coating to the lobster so it stays attached during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that protects the lobster while it cooks.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds browning and a nutty aroma to the crust.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets quickly in butter until light brown. Lobster meat is delicate and cooks fast. High heat browns the crumb crust quickly, and over-frying dries and toughens the lobster inside.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, bread, pepper, butter. 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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