Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lobster Patties
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the sauce
Mash the small claws and spawn in a dish until smooth.
Add gravy or broth and bread crumbs.
Heat until boiling.
Strain the mixture to a creamy thickness.
Mix half of the mixture with the lobster.
Make the filling
Add butter, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to the lobster.
Warm until butter melts.
Let the mixture cool.
Assemble and bake
Line a patty pan or dish with puff pastry.
Fill the pastry with the lobster mixture.
Cover with more pastry.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve
Cut the top pastry.
Warm the reserved sauce with a little butter.
Pour the sauce over the patty.
Garnish with lemon juice.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiled lobster
- Forms the main meaty filling of the patty.
- Small claws and spawn
- Mashed and strained into a creamy base that adds rich lobster flavor.
- Gravy or broth
- Adds liquid that, with bread crumbs, thickens the creamy base.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help thicken the mixture into a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, savory mouthfeel.
- Puff pastry
- Bakes into flaky, layered pastry that encloses the filling.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before filling the pastry. Filling hot mixture into raw puff pastry can melt the butter layers before baking, so the pastry rises poorly and turns greasy instead of flaky.
“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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