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Lobster Patties

A savory patty made from minced lobster, bread, parsley, butter, and seasonings, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Pick the meat and red berries from the lobster and mince them finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced lobster, grated bread, chopped parsley, and butter.

  3. Season with nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.

  4. Add white stock, cream, white wine, and chopped oysters.

  5. Heat the mixture together until warm.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line patty pans with puff pastry.

  2. Place a 1‑inch square of bread in each pan.

  3. Wet the edges of the pastry.

  4. Cover with another piece.

  5. Use a pastry cutter to mark the rim and trim excess pastry.

  6. Bake until golden.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove the tops and hollow out the bread and some of the pastry.

  2. Fill with the prepared lobster mixture.

  3. Replace the tops.

  4. Serve in a napkin.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat and red berries
Forms the main filling and gives the patties their rich seafood flavour.
Grated bread
Soaks up moisture and binds the filling so it holds together.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness, softening the filling.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the seafood flavour.
Chopped oysters
Adds a briny, concentrated seafood flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Puff pastry rises and sets through the heat of the oven; if underbaked it stays pale and doughy, and wet edges may not seal properly, so the pastry needs a full, even bake to turn crisp and golden.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, bread, parsley, butter, nutmeg, cream. 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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