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Lobster Patties

A pastry-wrapped lobster filling served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cases

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Roll out the puff pastry to about ½ inch thick.

  3. Cut out 6 rounds for the tops of the patties.

  4. Gather the pastry scraps and roll them out thinly.

  5. Line the patty pans.

  6. Place a piece of bread in each lined pan, sized to match the amount of lobster you will add.

  7. Cover with the pastry rounds.

  8. Brush with beaten egg yolk.

  9. Bake until golden brown.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the lobster.

  2. Place it in a small saucepan with the white sauce, salt, and cayenne, then simmer for a few minutes.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove the pastry tops.

  2. Take out the bread.

  3. Fill the cases with the lobster mixture.

  4. Seal the tops back on with egg white.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

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. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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 meaty filling and its sweet, rich flavour.
Puff pastry
Its layers of fat and dough puff with steam to form a flaky, crisp case.
Egg
Brushed on for golden browning and used as a glue to seal the tops.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the lobster filling stays soft and cohesive.

The step that matters

Simmer the lobster only a few minutes. Lobster protein toughens and turns rubbery when overheated, so keeping the simmer brief keeps the filling tender while it warms through in the white sauce.

“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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