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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are small, fried pieces of lobster meat mixed with butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 filling

  1. Chop the lobster meat into small pieces, but not too finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then mix in the flour.

  3. Add the milk and boil quickly for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly until thick.

  4. Remove from heat, add the lobster, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  5. Stir in the cream if using, then spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape into small cutlets, dip each in egg and breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the cutlets in very hot oil until golden brown.

Garnish and serve

  1. Insert a small piece of the lobster's feeler into the thin end of each cutlet to resemble a bone.

  2. Serve on lace paper and garnish with fried parsley.

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 + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 flavour and the bulk of the cutlet filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce base and adds richness to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a binding sauce that holds the cutlets together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks with the flour into a thick, creamy binder.
Cream
Adds extra moisture and richness to the filling when used.

The step that matters

Cooling the filling before shaping. The mixture must be fully cool and firm so the cutlets hold their shape. Shaping a warm, soft filling makes it slump and tear, and it can break open in the hot oil.

“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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