Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Chops

A dish of diced lobster mixed with butter, flour, cream, and eggs, formed into chops and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster base

  1. Cut the lobster into very small dice.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat, stirring until blended but not colored.

  3. Add the boiling cream and lobster dice, stirring for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then stir in the beaten egg yolks, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt.

  5. Return to heat and stir until the mixture thickens and the eggs are set.

Shape and chill

  1. Butter a platter and spread the mixture on it to about 1 inch thick.

  2. Once cold and firm, form the mixture into chops pointed at one end.

  3. Dip each chop first into bread crumbs, then into the egg, and again into the bread crumbs.

  4. Chill the chops in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard in a frying pan until boiling, testing with a piece of bread.

  2. Fry the chops in the hot lard until golden brown, using a frying basket if possible.

  3. Drain on brown paper and garnish each chop with a claw, serving in a circle.

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. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness and flavor to the custard-like mixture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a stable base that holds the chop shape.
Cream
Provides moisture and a smooth, rich body to the mixture.
Egg yolks
Set on heating to bind the mixture so it firms up when chilled.
Lobster meat
Supplies the main flavor and the distinct texture of the chops.
Egg
Acts as the binder that makes the bread crumb coating adhere.

The step that matters

Return to heat until the eggs are set. The egg yolks must be cooked until the mixture thickens; if underheated they won't set, and the chops will be too soft to shape and hold together when chilled and fried.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes