Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Patites

A savory lobster patite made with butter, flour, stock, lemon, salt, cayenne, and minced lobster.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Lobster Patites

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir in enough flour to thicken the mixture.

  3. Add the stock or hot water, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne; simmer briefly.

  4. Incorporate the minced lobster meat and heat thoroughly.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill patty cases with the mixture and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few minutes.

  2. Serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 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

Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the thickened base and carries the seasonings.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a stable, spoonable filling that holds its shape in the case.
Stock or hot water
Provides the liquid that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
Lobster meat
Supplies the main flavour and tender texture of the filling.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture before adding the lobster. Flour needs to be stirred in until the sauce is thick enough to hold its shape. If the filling is too thin, it will run out of the patty cases and become soggy while baking.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes