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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets made from lobster flesh and spawn, bread, cream, butter, egg yolks, anchovies, spices, fried and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the flesh from the lobster, discarding the shell and skin.

  2. Pound the lobster flesh and spawn together in a mortar until fine.

  3. Soak the stale bread in cream and melt the butter into it.

  4. Combine the bread mixture with the lobster mixture in the mortar.

  5. Add the egg yolks, anchovies, salt, mace, cayenne, and lemon juice; mix until smooth.

Shape and fry

  1. Transfer the mixture to a floured surface and let it rest for 1 hour.

  2. Cut into desired shapes using a cutlet cutter.

  3. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the cutlets until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on fancy paper with fried parsley in the center.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavour and the protein that sets into the cutlet body.
Stale bread
Absorbs cream and binds the mixture, giving the cutlets a softer, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping the cutlets hold their shape and brown when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture to the cutlets.
Cream
Moistens the bread and adds richness, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that enhances the lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the cutlets until golden brown. The mixture is soft and rich, so it can break or absorb excess oil if the oil is not hot enough or the pan is overcrowded. Hot oil sets the outside quickly for a crisp, evenly browned crust.

Swap the mace

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

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

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