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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are bite‑sized balls of lobster meat coated in breadcrumbs and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped lobster meat, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and powdered mace. Add the bread crumbs and melted butter, mixing until well combined.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in the beaten egg, then in the powdered cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in butter or sweet lard until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

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 filling and gives the croquettes their flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Beaten egg
Binds the coating so the cracker crumbs adhere to each ball.
Powdered cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Forming and coating the balls. The filling is soft and moist, so it must be firmly shaped and fully coated in egg and cracker crumbs before frying. Gaps in the coating let the filling leak and fall apart in hot fat.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, bread, butter, egg, parsley. 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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