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Lobster Cutlet

A fried lobster cutlet made with lobster, cream, butter, flour, lemon juice, egg, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lobster base

  1. Drain the lobster.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan.

  3. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, stirring well.

  4. Add the lobster juice.

  5. If not enough, add a little milk.

  6. Boil while stirring continuously until thickened.

  7. Stir in the cream and lemon juice.

  8. Add the finely chopped lobster.

  9. Beat the mixture together.

Shape and cool

  1. Let it cool.

  2. Once set, divide into portions.

  3. Form cutlets.

  4. Insert a small piece of macaroni into each cutlet as a bone.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip in beaten egg.

  2. Coat with cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in butter until golden brown.

  4. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Lobster
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the cutlet mixture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and lobster juice into a stiff base that sets when cooled.
Butter
Adds richness and, when frying, gives the coating a golden brown colour.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture, keeping the cutlets tender.
Egg
Binds the coating so the cracker crumbs stick to the cutlets.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring until thickened, then let it cool fully. The flour must be cooked thoroughly while stirring so the sauce thickens evenly without lumps. The mixture must then cool and set firmly; if it is still soft, the cutlets will break apart when shaped and coated.

“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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