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Croustades of Lobster

Lobster pieces are mixed with butter, stock, and herbs, then stuffed into fried bread rounds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Croustades of Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the flesh from the lobster and cut it into small squares.

  2. Season the lobster pieces with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. In a mortar, combine 2 ounces of butter and some lobster spawn. Pound the mixture until smooth.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. In a saucepan, melt another ounce of butter with 1 tablespoon of flour.

  4. Stir in 1 teacup of white stock and add the lobster pieces.

  5. Heat the mixture.

  6. Stir in the pounded spawn, lemon juice, and minced parsley.

  7. Keep the mixture warm without boiling.

Fry and fill the croustades

  1. Slice the stale loaf into 2-inch thick rounds.

  2. Cut out a smaller circle in the center of each round.

  3. Heat lard in a flat pan and fry the bread rounds until golden brown.

  4. Drain the fried rounds and scoop out the center.

  5. Fill the croustades with the lobster mixture.

  6. Place the filled croustades on a hot dish.

  7. Garnish with fried parsley and lemon quarters.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 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 flavor and the tender pieces that fill the croustades.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce and enriches the flavor.
Lobster spawn
Gives the sauce its rich color and a deep, concentrated seafood flavor.
Flour
Thickens the butter and white stock into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavors and loosens the thickened sauce.
Stale loaf
Forms the crisp, sturdy case that holds the lobster filling.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture warm without boiling. Boiling a sauce thickened with flour and enriched with butter and egg-like spawn can break it or make it grainy and separated. Gentle heat keeps it smooth and cohesive.

“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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