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Lobster Patties

A savory dish of minced lobster mixed with bread, herbs, and cream, wrapped in puff pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Remove the meat and red berries from the lobster and mince them finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced lobster, grated bread, chopped parsley, and butter.

  3. Season with nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.

  4. Add white stock, cream, white wine, and chopped oysters.

  5. Heat the mixture together until warm.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line patty pans with puff pastry.

  2. Place a square of bread in each pan.

  3. Wet the edges of the pastry.

  4. Cover with another piece, sealing well.

  5. Use a pastry cutter to mark the rim.

  6. Trim excess pastry.

  7. Bake until golden.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove the top.

  2. Scoop out some bread and pastry.

  3. Fill with the prepared lobster mixture.

  4. Replace the top.

  5. Serve in a napkin.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main seafood flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the filling body so it holds together rather than running.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving a smooth texture to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the filling into a creamy texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich lobster filling.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered case that puffs and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Puff pastry relies on layers of fat that turn to steam and lift the dough. Baking until golden sets and browns the case, so it stays crisp around the filling and does not turn soggy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, bread, parsley, butter, nutmeg, cream):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, bread, parsley, butter, nutmeg, 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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