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Lobster Cutlets or Croquettes

Fried lobster mixture coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets or Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Prepare the thick cream sauce and add the minced lobster meat, mustard, onion juice, lemon juice, and cayenne. Mix well.

  2. Spread the mixture on a buttered platter to a thickness of 1 inch and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes or cutlets. If using a mold, butter it, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and press the lobster mixture in.

  2. Turn the mold out onto a well-crumbed board, coat with beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  3. For decoration, place part of a small claw in the small end of each cutlet.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and the body of the croquette filling.
Thick cream sauce
Binds the minced lobster so the mixture holds its shape when cooled and shaped.
Egg
Coats the shaped croquettes so the breadcrumbs adhere and form a crisp crust.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster and cream flavour.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. The mixture must be spread thick and fully cooled so it firms up. If shaped while warm, the soft cream sauce stays loose and the croquettes can slump or split when coated and fried.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, cream, sauce, mustard, onion, butter):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, cream, sauce, mustard, onion, 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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