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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are breaded lobster meat coated in a butter‑flour‑milk sauce, fried until golden.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Chop the lobster meat, but not too finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Mix in the flour.

  4. Add the milk.

  5. Boil quickly for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Add the lobster and season well.

  8. Stir in the cream if using.

  9. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape into small cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet in egg.

  3. Coat each cutlet with breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry in very hot oil until golden brown.

  5. Insert a small piece of the lobster's feeler into the thin end of each cutlet to resemble a bone.

Serve

  1. Serve on lace paper and garnish with fried parsley.

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour in the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a binding sauce that holds the cutlets together.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Cream
Adds extra richness and softness to the filling.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Boiling the flour and milk quickly while stirring constantly keeps the sauce smooth and lets starch swell fully. A sauce that is too loose will not hold its shape, so the cutlets may fall apart when fried.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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