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Lobster Chops

Battered lobster meat formed into chops, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and lobster 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 Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster custard

  1. Cut the lobster into very small dice.

  2. Melt butter and add flour in a saucepan. Stir without coloring.

  3. Add boiling cream and lobster dice. Stir for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  5. Stir in beaten egg yolks, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt. Return to heat. Stir until eggs are set.

  6. Butter a platter and spread mixture to ½ inch thick.

  7. Let it cool and firm up.

Shape and chill

  1. Form the mixture into chops pointed at one end.

  2. Dip each chop first in bread crumbs, then in egg, and again in bread crumbs.

  3. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan until boiling. Test with a piece of bread.

  2. Fry the chops until golden brown, using a frying basket if possible.

  3. Drain the chops on brown paper.

  4. Garnish each chop with a claw and serve with Tartare Sauce.

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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable custard when heated.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a base that holds the chop shape.
Boiled lobster meat
Provides the main flavor and texture of the chops.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the custard base.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the roux-based base.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the chops during frying.

The step that matters

Stir until eggs are set. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if overheated. Stirring gently over heat sets them into a smooth custard that will firm up when cooled, which the chops need to hold their shape.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, flour, egg, lobster, meat, bread. 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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