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Lobster Croquettes

Lobster croquettes are fried balls of lobster meat mixed with spices, bread crumbs, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Lobster Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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

  1. Combine the chopped lobster, pepper, salt, and mace in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs until well combined.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into oval or pointed balls.

  2. Coat each ball with melted butter.

  3. Roll each ball in the beaten egg.

  4. Roll each ball in pulverized crackers.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in butter or sweet lard until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with crispy 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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

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

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 flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling so the balls hold their shape.
Beaten egg
Binds the coating so the cracker crumbs adhere to each ball.
Pulverized crackers
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.
Melted butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown evenly.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. The croquettes are already cooked lobster and binders, so frying is only for browning the crust. Frying over low heat can leave the coating pale or soggy, while very high heat can scorch it before the centre is hot.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, bread, butter, egg, parsley. 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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