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Lobster Patties

A pastry-wrapped lobster patty baked with butter or cream, seasoned with pepper, sea salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Lobster Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the lobster finely and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and cayenne.

  2. Mix in the butter or cream.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line patty pans with pastry and fill with the lobster mixture.

  2. Cover with pastry lids, making a hole in the center of each lid, and decorate with small fancy leaves.

  3. Brush the tops with beaten egg and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Tinned lobster
Provides the main filling, giving the patties their flavor and substance.
Butter or cream
Adds fat and moisture so the lobster filling stays rich and soft rather than dry.
Flaky or rough puff pastry
Its layered fat creates a light, flaky crust that puffs and browns in the oven.
Beaten egg
Brushed on top, it promotes even browning and a glossy finish on the pastry.

The step that matters

Brush the tops with beaten egg. Egg proteins brown and set on the surface, so an even coat gives a glossy, golden crust. Uneven brushing leaves pale patches, and egg that pools at the edges can stick the pastry layers together and stop them rising.

“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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