Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: lobster; vinegar; pickles; hard boiled eggs; dressing for chicken salad

Why it works: Lobster and chicken work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the lobster from the shell and wash it in cold water.
Soak the lobster in vinegar for about 5 minutes, then strain.
Cut the lobster into regular-sized pieces.
Cut pickles and hard-boiled eggs into the same size pieces as the lobster.

Assemble and serve

Combine one-third lobster, one-third pickles, and one-third eggs.
Mix with a dressing suitable for chicken salad and keep cold.

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 + chickentop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together168 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Lobster + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together692 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Vinegar + chickentop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,344 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster: Provides the main meaty texture and flavour of the salad.
Vinegar: Briefly soaking the lobster in vinegar adds a light acidity that brightens the flesh.
Pickles: Add acidity and a crisp, tangy bite that contrasts with the rich lobster.
Hard boiled eggs: Add soft, creamy texture and body to the salad.

“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.