Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Cutlets

Lobster cutlets made from finely pounded lobster meat mixed with butter, salt, mace, cayenne, and lobster coral, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lobster and meat work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 909 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Lobster Cutlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the lobster meat finely.

  2. Add butter, salt, mace, cayenne, and coral; blend until smooth.

  3. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, but avoid over-spicing.

Shape and warm

  1. Mold the mixture into small cutlets about ⅓ inch thick.

  2. Insert a small piece of claw into each cutlet and sprinkle with coral.

  3. Arrange cutlets on a serving dish.

  4. Heat in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 8-10 minutes to warm through.

Serve

  1. Serve with a white sauce in the center.

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 + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
Provides the main body and delicate flavor of the cutlets.
Sweet butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the mixture hold together smoothly.
Lobster coral
Contributes a rich, concentrated lobster flavor and color.

The step that matters

Adjust seasoning carefully. Cayenne and mace are strong spices that can easily overpower the delicate flavor of lobster. Tasting before shaping lets the cook correct the balance while the mixture can still be adjusted.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, butter, 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipes