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Lobster Rissoles

Small balls of minced lobster meat, pounded coral, egg yolk and batter, fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lobster Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the lobster meat finely.

  2. Pound the coral until smooth.

  3. Grate the egg yolks.

  4. Season the mixture with cayenne pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

Make and shape

  1. In a bowl, combine milk, flour, and egg to make a batter.

  2. Beat well and gradually mix in the lobster mixture.

  3. Roll into balls the size of a large plum when stiff enough to form.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in a chafing dish with fresh butter.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 meat
Forms the main body and flavour of the rissoles.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture together.
Egg
Binds the batter so the mixture holds its shape.
Flour
Thickens the batter so the mixture becomes stiff enough to shape.
Milk
Moistens the batter and adds softness to the mixture.
Butter
Fat for frying, promoting browning and a rich crust.

The step that matters

Beat the batter well before adding the lobster mixture. Thorough beating combines the milk, flour, and egg into a smooth batter; adding the lobster gradually prevents lumps and keeps the mixture evenly bound so the balls hold their shape in the hot butter.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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