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Lobster Cullets

Lobster cutlets are pan‑fried patties of minced lobster, parsley, egg yolks, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Cullets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, melt a piece of butter.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and mix well.

  3. Stir in the minced lobster and chopped parsley.

  4. Pour in some good stock and remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the yolks of 2 eggs until combined.

  6. Spread the mixture out and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Cut into cutlet shapes.

  2. Dip each cutlet into beaten eggs, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Let them stand for 1 hour, then fry until rich brown.

  4. Serve with fried parsley.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (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

Lobster flesh
Forms the main body and flavour of the cutlets.
Flour
Thickens the butter mixture so it holds together when cooled and shaped.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to help it set when cooled.
Fine baked bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the mixture and helps the cutlets brown.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture will not hold its cutlet shape and can break apart in the pan. Cooling lets the flour and egg yolks thicken it so it firms up enough to shape and coat.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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