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Lobster Salad

A chilled salad of lobster, lettuces, endive, beetroot, cucumber, and hard‑boiled eggs dressed with a creamy mustard‑anchovy vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

5 persons (the record also lists 6 persons)

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Wash the salad and thoroughly dry it by shaking it in a cloth.

  2. Cut up the lettuces and endive.

  3. Pour the dressing on them and lightly throw in the small salad.

  4. Mix all well together with the pickings from the body of the lobster.

Prepare the lobster and eggs

  1. Pick the meat from the shell, cut it up into nice square pieces, put half in the salad and reserve the other half for garnishing.

  2. Separate the yolks from the whites of 2 hard-boiled eggs.

  3. Chop the whites very fine.

  4. Rub the yolks through a sieve, and afterwards the coral from the inside.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Arrange the salad lightly on a glass dish.

  2. Garnish first with a row of sliced cucumber, then with the pieces of lobster, the yolks and whites of the eggs, coral, and beetroot placed alternately, arranged in small separate bunches so that the colours contrast nicely.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

524Calories
62 gProtein
23 gFat
19 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Anchovy100g210
Shrimp100g cooked99
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + lobstertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 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
Supplies the sweet, firm meat that gives the salad its main body and flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth body to the dressing.
Made mustard
Adds a sharp bite that balances the richness of the dressing.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks add a smooth, rich texture; chopped whites add a firm, contrasting bite.
Curry-powder
Adds a warm aroma and gentle spice to the dressing.

The step that matters

Drying the salad thoroughly. Any water left on the leaves dilutes the dressing and stops it clinging, so the salad turns watery and the dressing pools at the bottom of the dish.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, anchovy, sauce, cream, lobster, egg, onion):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, anchovy, sauce, cream, lobster, egg, onion. 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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