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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are finely pounded lobster meat mixed with butter, spices, and lobster coral, shaped into small cutlets and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the lobster meat finely.

  2. Add butter, salt, mace, cayenne, and coral; blend until smooth.

  3. Taste and adjust seasoning carefully.

Shape and heat

  1. Mold the mixture into small cutlets, about ⅓ inch thick.

  2. Insert a small claw into each cutlet and sprinkle with coral.

  3. Arrange cutlets on a serving dish.

  4. Heat in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 8-10 minutes.

  5. Serve with a white sauce in the center.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 meat
Forms the main body of the cutlets and gives them their delicate, flaky-soft texture.
Sweet butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the cutlets moist and smooth when blended.
Lobster coral
Contributes rich, concentrated lobster flavour and a deeper color to the cutlets.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat that sharpens and balances the sweetness of the lobster.

The step that matters

Taste and adjust seasoning carefully. Lobster is mild and the seasoning is added by hand, so salt and spice are easy to under- or over-do. Tasting before shaping lets the cook correct the balance while the mixture is still easy to adjust.

Swap the mace

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

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

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