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, Cold
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Remove the large claws and lightly crack the shell without disfiguring the lobster.
Split open the tail with a sharp knife.
Arrange and serve
Place the lobster on a folded napkin with the head upright in the center and arrange the tail and claws around it.
Garnish with parsley, coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and mustard.
Serve with a little salad oil and vinegar on the side.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,588 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
The step that matters
Cracking the shell without disfiguring the lobster. Lightly cracking the shell lets the meat be removed cleanly while keeping the lobster's whole presentation intact. Pressing too hard can splinter the shell and tear the flesh, which spoils the cold display.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, pepper, mustard, vinegar):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Celeryfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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