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Lobster Fritters

A fried lobster dish coated in batter, served with parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Lobster Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil 1 lobster in 2 quarts of water with ½ cup coarse sea salt for 25 minutes.

  2. Once cool, remove the meat and fat, and cut into small slices.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 cup cream, chopped celery, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon thyme, ¼ teaspoon white pepper, and ¼ teaspoon parsley.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil for 2 minutes.

  3. Add the yolks of 4 eggs and the lobster; mix and simmer for 5 minutes.

  4. Pour the mixture into a greased dish.

  5. Let it cool to firm up.

  6. Cut into slices.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the slices in common batter.

  2. Fry the battered slices in hot lard until light brown.

  3. Serve garnished with fried parsley sprigs.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meaty filling that gives the fritters their flavour and bulk.
Eggs (in the method)
Egg yolks thicken the cream mixture and help it set firm enough to slice.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and forms the body of the custard base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture so it holds its shape when cooled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the base, carrying flavour through the custard.
Lard
Fat for frying that promotes browning and a crisp golden batter crust.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool fully before slicing. The egg and flour mixture only firms up as it cools. Cutting it while still warm can make the slices soft and cause them to break apart in the batter and hot fat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, flour, cream, celery, thyme, parsley):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, cream, celery, thyme, parsley. 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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