Name: Lobster for Mayonnaise
Ingredients: lobster tail meat; Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 55); lettuce; Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 52)

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster for Mayonnaise

Ingredients

lobster tail meat
Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 55)
lettuce
Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 52)

Directions

Remove the meat from the lobster tail and cut it into slices about ½ inch thick.
Coat the lobster slices with Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 55).
Arrange the lobster slices neatly in rows around the dish.
Place a salad of lettuce in the center of the dish.
Pour Mayonnaise Sauce (No. 52) over the lettuce.

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.

Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together909 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Meat + lettucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together579 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sauce + lettucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).