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Lobster Rissoles

Lobster rissoles are bite‑sized balls of minced lobster mixed with egg yolks, flour, and seasonings, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster and remove the meat.

  2. Mince the lobster meat finely.

  3. Pound the lobster smooth and mix with the minced lobster.

  4. Grate the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and add to the mixture.

  5. Season with cayenne and salt.

Shape and fry

  1. In a bowl, combine milk, flour, and the beaten egg to make a batter.

  2. Beat the batter well and gradually mix in the lobster until stiff enough to form balls.

  3. Shape the mixture into walnut-sized balls.

  4. Fry the balls in fresh butter or salad oil until golden brown.

  5. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Lobster
Forms the main body of the rissoles and gives their flavor.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture that binds the mixture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when fried.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the batter and helps the mixture hold together.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, softening the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until golden brown. The mixture is soft and delicate, so it should be fried in hot fat over moderate heat. This browns the outside and sets the binder before the centre can fall apart or turn greasy.

“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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