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Lobster Croquettes

A fried dish of lobster mixed with cream, flour, and seasonings, formed into croquettes and coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Season the lobster with salt and cayenne.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, rub the butter and flour together, then add to the boiling cream.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and cook for 2 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the lobster until well combined.

  5. Allow the mixture to cool, then form into chop shapes.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each chop in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Heat oil or lard in a frying basket and fry the croquettes until golden brown.

Garnish and serve

  1. Insert the end of a small claw into each chop for garnish.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve with a cream sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a stiff base that holds the croquette shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the filling as it cooks, helping it set when cooled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling base.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the filling before shaping. If the mixture is shaped while warm it stays soft and slumps. Cooling lets the starch and egg set so the chops hold their form through coating and frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, flour, butter, cream, nutmeg, egg, pepper. 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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