Name: Deviled Lobster
Ingredients: meat of 6 lobsters; ½ teaspoon mustard; 1 gallon veal or chicken broth; 1 teaspoon vinegar (optional); salt and pepper to taste; toast for serving

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Deviled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the veal or chicken broth in a large pot.
Mix in the mustard and season with salt and pepper.
If needed, add vinegar to taste.

Finish and serve

Thicken the mixture as desired.
Serve the deviled lobster on toast.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together909 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat of 6 lobsters: Provides the main protein and the body of the dish.
Veal or chicken broth: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavors and sets the moisture of the dish.
Mustard: Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, veal, vinegar, pepper):

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Shallotfits less well
Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, veal, vinegar, pepper. 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.