Name: Forming Lobster Cutlets
Ingredients: lobster; bread crumbs; smoking-hot fat for frying; parsley

Why it works: Bread and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,588 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Forming Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

lobster
bread crumbs
smoking-hot fat for frying
parsley

Directions

Prepare the lobster cutlets.
Roll each cutlet in bread crumbs.
Heat enough smoking-hot fat in a frying pan to cover the cutlets.
Fry the cutlets until light brown.
Drain on soft paper.
Insert a piece of parsley or lobster feeler into the thin end of each cutlet.
Arrange on a folded serviette or lace paper and garnish with 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.

Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lobster + breadtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together736 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together890 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).