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Lobster Cornets

A puff pastry shell filled with a lobster, veal, or chicken mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper 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 Cornets

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry as thinly as possible, about 18 inches long, and cut into strips 1 inch wide.

  2. Wet the right-hand side of each strip and roll it onto greased slipper moulds, starting at the thin end.

  3. Fold over the under-layer of pastry each time and finish the top neatly.

  4. Place on a baking sheet and brush the tops with beaten egg.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour and add the milk.

  2. Stir until it boils and thickens, then add the lobster, veal, or chicken, along with salt, pepper, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  3. Reheat the mixture and transfer it to a piping bag with a plain tube.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove the moulds from the pastry cases and fill each with the mixture.

  2. Garnish with lobster coral and parsley, and serve hot or cold.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Puff pastry
Bakes into crisp, flaky layers that form the cornet shells.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour through the roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk and stock into a smooth, binding sauce.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the sauce a creamy body.
Lobster, veal, or chicken
Provides the main filling flavour and substance of the mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the roux and milk until it boils and thickens. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter and the liquid brought to a boil so the starch swells and thickens smoothly; stopping early leaves a thin, floury sauce and stirring prevents lumps and 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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