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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls of lobster mixture coated in egg and cracker crumbs, served dry with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Form the lobster mixture into pointed balls.

  2. Dip each ball in beaten egg.

  3. Roll the egg-coated balls in cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in very hot lard until golden brown.

  2. Serve dry, garnished with parsley.

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

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

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 mixture
Forms the filling that gives each croquette its main flavor and body.
Egg
Binds the coating so the cracker crumbs stick to the balls.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it browns, and the filling can overheat or fall apart. Very hot fat sets the egg and crumb crust quickly, sealing the croquette and producing a crisp, golden exterior.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cream, egg. 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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