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Lobster Salad

A salad of lobster, cucumber, green onion, green pepper, celery, boiled potato, olives, hard boiled eggs, and dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the lobster into pieces.

  2. Cut the cucumber, green onion, green pepper, celery, boiled potato, and hard boiled eggs into small pieces.

Assemble

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Pour salad dressing over the mixture and toss gently.

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.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  5. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and a sweet, delicate meaty texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Boiled potato
Adds body and a starchy, soft texture that holds the salad together.
Salad dressing
Supplies moisture, fat and tang that coat the pieces and carry the flavour.
Cucumber
Adds crisp, watery crunch that contrasts with the softer ingredients.
Celery
Contributes crunch and a fresh, slightly bitter note.

The step that matters

Toss gently with the dressing. Cut pieces of lobster, potato and egg are fragile and break down easily. Gentle folding keeps them intact and coated, while vigorous stirring would mash the potato and egg and make the salad pasty.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, cucumber, pepper, celery, potato, olive, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cucumber, pepper, celery, potato, olive, egg. 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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