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Fried Lobster

A dish of lobster meat breaded and fried, served with a reduced Madeira and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fried Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster meat

  1. Pick the meat from the tail and claws of the lobster, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Brush the meat with beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and let dry. Repeat the process.

  3. Heat boiling fat in a frying basket and fry the lobster meat until golden brown.

  4. Drain the fried lobster and place on a hot dish. Serve with tartar sauce.

Make the sauce base

  1. In a stewpan, fry chopped carrot and onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add Madeira and broth, then add sweet herbs and parsley. Boil.

  3. Plunge two live lobsters into the boiling mixture and cook for 12 minutes.

  4. Let the lobsters cool in the cooking liquid, then pick the meat and slice it.

  5. In a buttered frying pan, keep the lobster warm near the fire.

  6. Strain the cooking liquid, boil until reduced, adding Madeira, tomato sauce, butter, cayenne, and lemon juice.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the lobster slices in the frying pan, turning occasionally, then serve 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the sweet, tender meat that forms the core of both dishes.
Eggs
Bind the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the lobster meat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the vegetables brown in the base.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and sweetness to the sauce as it reduces.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and color to the reduced sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the breaded lobster meat until golden brown. The egg and breadcrumb coating must be dry and fully set before frying, or it can separate or absorb fat. Frying in hot fat browns the crumbs quickly, so the lobster is heated through without becoming tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, egg, carrot, butter, madeira wine, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, egg, carrot, butter, madeira wine, parsley. 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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