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Lobster Cutlets

A dish of lobster meat coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster base

  1. Cut the lobster meat into fine dice and season with cayenne and salt.

  2. In a pan, heat the butter, then add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the stock (or cream or milk) and one beaten egg; season.

  4. Bring to a boil, add the lobster, and remove from heat immediately.

  5. Stir in the lemon juice.

Shape and chill

  1. Butter a platter and pour the mixture onto it to a thickness of 1 inch.

  2. Smooth the top with a knife and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, cut into oblong pieces.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Place in a frying basket and fry in boiling hot lard 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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. Butter + breadtop 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. 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

Lobster
Provides the main flesh and sweet seafood flavor that defines the cutlet.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavor while the flour is cooked in it.
Flour
Cooked in butter and thickened with stock, it sets the mixture so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form the coating that helps the crumbs adhere and brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Stock
Liquid that loosens the flour base and adds savory depth.

The step that matters

Remove the mixture from heat immediately after adding the lobster. Lobster meat is delicate and turns tough and rubbery when overcooked, so it should only be warmed through in the thickened base rather than simmered.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, cream, flour, pepper, bread, 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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