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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets are made by mixing lobster, mushrooms, and truffles with a butter‑flour sauce, shaping into cutlets, breading, and frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, stirring until smooth.

  3. Pour in the white stock and cream, mixing well.

  4. Once smooth, add the parsley, beaten egg, and enough chopped lobster, mushrooms, and truffles to make 1 pint. Cook for a few minutes.

  5. Pour onto a platter and let cool completely.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into cutlets.

  2. Dip the cutlets in breadcrumbs, then in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs again.

  3. Fry the cutlets in hot fat 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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness and flavour as it melts into the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the stock and cream into a stiff base that holds the cutlet shape.
Eggs
Binds the mixture so it sets firm, and gives the coating something to adhere to.
Chopped lobster, mushrooms, and truffles
Provide the main flavour and texture of the cutlets.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture completely before shaping. A warm, loose mixture stays soft and sticky, so cutlets lose their shape and can break apart in the hot fat. Chilling firms the starch and egg so the cutlets hold together while frying.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, cream, egg, lobster, mushroom. 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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