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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are diced lobster mixed with roux, cream, egg, and seasonings, chilled, shaped, breaded, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the lobster, then remove the meat and cut it into ¼‑inch dice.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the cold water and cream, stirring until smooth.

  4. Season the mixture and add the lobster meat, lemon juice, and egg.

Shape and fry

  1. Chill the mixture until firm, then shape it into cutlets.

  2. Coat the cutlets in breadcrumbs.

  3. Heat the frying fat and fry the cutlets 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 + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the main filling, providing the flavour and texture of the cutlets.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the liquid with the butter to form a roux that binds the filling.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cutlets hold their shape when fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture until firm. A soft, warm filling will not hold its shape when shaped and can fall apart or leak in the hot fat. Chilling lets the starch-thickened sauce and egg set, so the cutlets keep their form and cook evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, flour, 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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