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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls of lobster meat mixed with cream sauce, mustard, and cayenne, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

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 Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the lobster meat finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped lobster, cream sauce, mustard, and cayenne.

  3. Cool the mixture, then shape it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the croquettes in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot cottolene until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 bulk of the filling.
Thick cream sauce
Binds the lobster so the mixture holds its shape when formed.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating during frying.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, savoury note that balances the rich filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. A warm, soft filling is too loose to hold its shape, and it can break open or soak the breadcrumbs. Chilling firms the cream sauce so the croquettes keep their form in the hot fat.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Horseradishfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

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