Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Chops

A dish of lobster meat mixed with parsley, onion, flour, cream, Worcestershire sauce, and eggs, shaped into chops and pan‑fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster in water for about 25 minutes.

  2. Once cool, remove the meat from the shell and chop it finely.

  3. Mix the chopped lobster meat with parsley and onion, and season to taste.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, melt the butter, add flour, and stir until smooth.

  2. Gradually add cream and Worcestershire sauce, stirring until thickened.

Shape and cook

  1. In a bowl, combine the lobster mixture with the sauce and beaten eggs.

  2. Shape into chops and cook in a hot skillet 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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and bulk of the chops.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the sauce taste full and the chops brown.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the mixture together.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and body to the sauce, making the mixture tender rather than dry.
Raw eggs
Bind the lobster mixture so the chops hold their shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Shape into chops and cook in a hot skillet until golden brown.. The mixture is soft and bound only by egg and starch, so it can fall apart or stay pale if the skillet is not hot enough. A hot pan sets the egg and browns the surface quickly, helping the chops hold together.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, parsley, butter, flour, cream, sauce, 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes