Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Lobster Patties
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the meat from the tail and claws of the boiled lobster and chop it finely.
Make the filling
In a stew pan, combine the chopped lobster meat, pounded inside a spoon, butter, cream, veal consommé, cayenne pepper, salt, essence of anchovy, lemon juice, flour, and enough water to create a smooth mixture.
Stir and stew the mixture for five minutes.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together470 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Boiled hen lobster
- Provides the main meat that forms the body of the patty filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky texture to the filling.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and smoothness, softening the filling's texture.
- Veal consommé
- Supplies savoury body and liquid to the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture so it holds together as a patty filling.
- Essence of anchovy
- Adds a salty, savoury depth that enhances the lobster flavour.
The step that matters
Stewing the mixture for five minutes. Flour needs sustained heat to cook out its raw taste and thicken the liquid. Stirring keeps the mixture smooth and prevents the flour from clumping or scorching on the base of the pan.
“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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