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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets made from lobster meat mixed with spices, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Pick out the meat from the lobsters and place it in a mortar with part of its coral.

  2. Pound the lobster meat and mix in powdered mace, grated nutmeg, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Beat the yolks of two eggs and the white of one egg with anchovy sauce, then combine with the lobster mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture out to 2 inches thick, dust with flour, and cut into cutlet shapes.

  2. Brush the cutlets with beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry in boiling butter 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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 of the cutlets and provides their delicate, sweet flavour.
Eggs
Bind the lobster mixture together and form a coating that helps breadcrumbs stick.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried in butter.
Butter
Fries the cutlets, adding richness and promoting browning on the outside.

The step that matters

Frying the cutlets in boiling butter. If the butter is not hot enough, the breadcrumb coating absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the coating quickly and browns it evenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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