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Croquettes of Lobster

A fried dish of finely chopped lobster mixed with bread crumbs, spices, and egg, formed into balls or cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Croquettes of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound or chop the lobster meat finely.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs, pepper, salt, anchovy, mace, vinegar or lemon juice, and cream if using.

  3. Warm the mixture and beat in the egg yolk.

  4. Once cool, shape the mixture into round or oval balls or flat cakes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece in egg and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard 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.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

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

  3. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Meat + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together335 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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 croquette filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture, helping the croquettes hold together when cooked.
Anchovy paste
Adds a savoury, salty depth that enhances the lobster flavour.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the outside a golden, crisp crust.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture only once cool. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape and may split or spread in the pan. Cooling lets the bread crumbs and egg firm up, so the balls or cakes keep their form during coating and frying.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, meat, bread, pepper, anchovy, vinegar, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, bread, pepper, anchovy, vinegar, cream. 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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