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Lobster Cutlets

Lobster Cutlets are fried pieces of lobster meat coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove all the white meat from the lobster and chop it finely.

  2. Place the lobster shells in the milk to extract the flavor.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Strain the mixture into the milk.

  4. Stir until it boils.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Add the chopped lobster, cayenne, and anchovy sauce. Mix well.

  7. Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool.

Shape, coat and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet in egg.

  3. Coat each cutlet with bread crumbs.

  4. Add a small piece of the lobster feeler to each cutlet.

  5. Fry the cutlets in hot fat until golden brown.

  6. Drain on paper towels.

  7. Serve garnished with fresh 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Provides the main flavor and the meat that forms the cutlet filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stiff base that holds the cutlets together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps form the flour roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying flavor from the lobster shells.
Egg
Binds the outside so the bread crumbs adhere before frying.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, loose mixture will not hold its shape. Cooling lets the starch in the flour-thickened base set, so the cutlets keep their form through dipping and frying.

“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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