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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls of lobster meat mixed with mace, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, butter, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Finely chop the meat of a well boiled lobster.

  2. Add powdered mace, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mix in ¼ cup bread crumbs and melted butter.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into pointed balls.

  2. Roll the balls in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in butter or 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 meat
Provides the main body and flavor of the croquettes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling tender and rich.
Beaten egg
Sets when heated, binding the coating so it holds during frying.

The step that matters

Rolling the balls in egg and cracker crumbs. The egg proteins set when heated and glue the cracker crumbs to the surface, forming a coating that holds the filling together. If the coat is thin or patchy, the filling can leak or break apart in hot fat.

Swap the mace

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

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

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