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Lobster Patties

A pastry-wrapped lobster mixture flavored with cayenne, cochineal, tarragon vinegar, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Lobster Patties

two dozen patty cases

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 pastry

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

  2. Roll out the puff pastry to about ½ inch thickness to make two dozen patty cases.

  3. Cut the pastry with a fluted cutter and place them on a baking sheet.

  4. Bake the pastry until golden brown.

Make the filling

  1. Remove the lobster from the can, discard the bones, and pound the meat to a smooth paste.

  2. Mix in the butter and enough liquid from the can to soften the lobster paste.

  3. Stir in the cochineal, tarragon vinegar, and anchovy essence.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the baked pastry cases with the lobster mixture.

  2. Garnish each patty with a sprig of 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.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Canned lobster
Forms the main filling, providing the savoury meat that the patties are built around.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the lobster paste.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered case that rises and browns in the oven.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a mild acidity that brightens the rich lobster filling.

The step that matters

Baking the pastry until golden brown. Puff pastry relies on cold fat turning to steam in a hot oven to separate its layers. Under-baked cases stay pale, doughy and soggy once filled, while over-baking can burn the edges before the centre sets.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, pepper, vinegar, anchovy):

  1. Tarragonthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, pepper, vinegar, anchovy. 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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