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Salad

Lobster Salad Dressing

A dressing made from hard‑boiled egg yolks, mustard, pepper, cream, vinegar, and optional oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lobster Salad Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, rub the hard‑boiled egg yolks with the back of a silver spoon until smooth.

  2. Add the mixed mustard, black pepper, cream, and vinegar, then beat the mixture together until thoroughly combined.

  3. If desired, add a few drops of oil and mix again.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Rubbed smooth to form the body of the dressing and give it a rich, creamy texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness, loosening the yolks into a pourable dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma, and its natural emulsifiers help hold the dressing together.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture until thoroughly combined. Yolks, cream, and vinegar only form a smooth, stable dressing when fully blended; under-mixing leaves streaks and lumps, and the mustard helps bind the fat and liquid so the dressing does not separate.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, cream, 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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