Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: 1 can of lobster; 1 cup of celery, chopped; Lettuce leaves; Mayonnaise

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

1 can of lobster
1 cup of celery, chopped
Lettuce leaves
Mayonnaise

Directions

Chop the lobster and celery.
Serve the mixture on lettuce leaves.
Top with a generous amount of mayonnaise.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + celerytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together251 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster: Provides the main protein and the sweet, meaty body of the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft lobster.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and moisture, binding the salad and giving it a creamy texture.