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Lobster Croquets or Cutlets

Lobster croquettes are fried pieces of lobster meat mixed with white allemande sauce, berries, spawn, cream, cayenne pepper, and salt, coated in egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Croquets or Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Split the lobster and remove the meat, chopping it into small pieces.

  2. Mix the lobster meat with White Allemande Sauce, pounded berries, spawn, cream, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Heat the mixture in a stewpan for five minutes, then pour it onto a dish to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cooled, cut the mixture into cutlet shapes or roll into cork-shaped pieces on a floured board.

  2. Coat each piece in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil for two minutes or until golden brown.

  2. Serve with fried parsley on a hot dish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body and flavour of the croquette filling.
White allemande sauce
Binds the lobster into a soft mixture that holds its shape when cooled.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling, keeping it tender.
Egg
Coats the pieces so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crisp shell.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. The filling must be fully cool and firm before shaping, otherwise it stays soft, sticks to the board and may break apart in the hot oil.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce, cream, pepper, flour, egg, bread. 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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