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Lobster Balls, or Sausages

A dish of lobster flesh mixed with breadcrumbs and spices, formed into balls or sausages and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster Balls, or Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the lobster flesh, coral, and spawn in a mortar.

  2. Add bread crumbs, cayenne, black pepper, salt, and bruised mace.

  3. Mix in melted butter until combined.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into balls or sausages.

  2. Coat with beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in butter until golden brown.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 flesh
Provides the main protein and flavour, pounded to bind the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the mixture and forms a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the meatballs moist inside.

The step that matters

Fry in butter until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the crumb coating through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and colour. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and greasy, while too much can scorch it before the centre is hot.

Swap the mace

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

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

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