Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Lobster Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Remove the shell from the lobster and extract the flesh.
Cut the lobster flesh into dice-sized pieces.
If using a hen lobster, remove the coral from the neck and back.
Wash the coral in cold water.
Make the mixture
Combine the coral and butter in a mortar.
Pound the mixture until smooth.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl.
Scrape any remaining mixture from the sieve.
Form the mixture into small patties.
Heat the flour in a saucepan.
Add the lobster mixture to the flour.
Shape the mixture into cutlets.
Bread and fry
Dip the cutlets in beaten egg.
Coat the cutlets with bread crumbs.
Fry the cutlets in hot oil until golden brown.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
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.
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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 flesh and flavour of the cutlets.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, helping the coral mixture bind and turn smooth.
- Flour
- Helps the mixture hold its shape and firm up for cutting into cutlets.
- Egg
- Binds the bread crumb coating so it sticks to the cutlets while frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp golden crust that browns when the cutlets are fried.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is not hot enough lets the coating soak up grease before it sets, leaving cutlets soggy and pale. Hot oil sets the egg and crumb crust quickly and drives browning, keeping the filling moist inside.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, cream, flour, egg, bread):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, cream, flour, egg, bread. 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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