Name: Liobster Salad
Ingredients: 4 hard-boiled egg yolks; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); ½ cup vinegar; celery or cabbage, finely chopped; lobster

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Liobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

Combine the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs, pepper, salt, and vinegar in a bowl and stir well.

Assemble and serve

Mix the chopped celery or cabbage with the lobster in a serving dish.
Pour the egg mixture over the lobster and vegetables.
Serve immediately.

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + lobstertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together251 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Vinegar + lobstertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together692 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks: Their rich, emulsified texture forms a creamy dressing that coats the lobster and vegetables.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks.
Lobster: Provides the main meaty body and flavour of the salad.
Celery or cabbage: Adds crisp texture and freshness that contrasts with the soft lobster.