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Lobster Croquettes

A fried dish of lobster, egg, and breadcrumbs coated in egg and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lobster Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Drain the liquor from the lobster.

  2. Cut the lobster into small pieces.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk, flour, and butter.

  2. Cook until thick, then remove from heat and cool.

  3. Add the lobster, riced egg, bread crumbs, salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix well.

  4. Form the mixture into pyramid-shaped molds.

  5. Chill in a cold place.

Coat and fry

  1. Heat fat in a pan.

  2. Roll the molds in beaten egg.

  3. Roll the molds in cracker crumbs.

  4. Roll the molds back into beaten egg.

  5. Roll the molds again in cracker crumbs.

  6. Drop the croquettes into the hot fat and fry 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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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
Forms the main body and flavor of the croquettes.
Milk
Makes a thick sauce that binds the filling and keeps it moist.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and helps make a smooth, flavorful sauce.
Hard cooked egg
Adds body and helps bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and firms the filling so it can be shaped.

The step that matters

Chill the shaped molds before coating. Chilling firms the starch-thickened filling so the molds keep their shape through breading and frying instead of spreading or breaking open in hot fat.

“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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