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Lobster Salad

A salad of chopped lobster and celery dressed with mustard, butter, cayenne pepper, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped lobsters and celery.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the mustard, butter, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Add the egg yolks to the mustard mixture and stir until smooth.

  4. Pour the dressing over the lobster and celery mixture and toss to combine.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body of the salad and provides its rich, savoury flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly sharp bite that contrasts with the soft lobster.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps the dressing hold together as a smooth emulsion.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the dressing.
Egg yolks
Act as an emulsifier and thicken the dressing so it coats the lobster and celery.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the mustard mixture. Egg yolks thicken as they are heated and can scramble if the butter is too hot or they are added too fast. Stirring them in steadily until smooth lets the fats and yolk proteins form a stable, creamy dressing.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, mustard, butter, pepper, 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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