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Salad

Lobster Salad

A chilled salad of lobster pieces dressed with a mustard‑egg vinaigrette and garnished with boiled egg whites, celery tops, and lobster claws.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the gills from the lobster and cut it into small pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, lightly beat the raw egg yolk and add the hard-boiled egg yolks while beating continuously.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil, a few drops at a time, while stirring.

  3. Mix in the mustard, salt, and pepper, and beat until light.

  4. Add the vinegar and mix well.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the lobster pieces with salt and pepper, then pour the dressing over just before serving.

  2. Garnish with boiled egg whites, celery tops, and small claws.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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, providing the meaty texture and bulk.
Raw egg yolk
Acts as the emulsifier that holds the oil and vinegar together in a smooth dressing.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and body to the dressing, helping it stay thick and creamy.
Olive oil
Supplies fat and body, forming the base of the emulsified dressing.
English mustard
Adds sharpness and helps stabilise the emulsion so the dressing does not split.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich dressing and balances the fat.

The step that matters

Slowly adding the olive oil. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while beating, so the yolks can absorb it into a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast makes the dressing split and turn greasy.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, olive, mustard, pepper, vinegar. 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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