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Lobster Rissoles

A fried patty of lobster meat mixed with egg yolk, white sauce, parsley, and cayenne, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Remove the flesh from the lobster shell and chop it finely.

  2. Combine lobster, egg yolk, white sauce, parsley, and cayenne in a saucepan.

  3. Stir over heat until thoroughly hot.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Transfer to a plate.

  6. Let it cool.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll out puff pastry thinly and cut into 2-inch rounds.

  2. Place a small amount of the lobster mixture in the center of each round.

  3. Moisten the edges with cold water.

  4. Fold into a half-moon shape.

  5. Coat with egg and breadcrumbs or crushed vermicelli.

Fry

  1. Heat a deep pan of frying fat.

  2. Fry the rissoles 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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 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

Lobster
Provides the main filling and its savoury, sweet flavour.
Egg yolk
Binds the lobster filling so it holds together when heated.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess to the filling, keeping it from drying out.
Puff pastry trimmings
Forms the crisp, flaky outer casing that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Let the filling cool before shaping. A hot filling softens the pastry and makes the edges hard to seal. It can also melt fat and steam, causing the rissoles to burst or open in the hot fat.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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