Why it works: Sauce and lobster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and season
Chop the cabbage and celery, and grate the onion.
Season with salt, white pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Mix and garnish
Mix the lobster meat with the chopped vegetables.
Gently stir in the mayonnaise dressing.
Garnish with sprigs of celery and the lobster coral on top.
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.
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Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,840 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together853 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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.
- Cabbage
- Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up under the dressing.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds fat and moisture that binds the salad and carries the seasoning.
- Onion
- Adds sharp aromatic flavour to the salad.
The step that matters
Gently stir in the mayonnaise dressing. Vigorous mixing breaks down the delicate lobster meat and softens the crisp cabbage and celery. Folding gently keeps the pieces intact and the salad crisp.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, celery, onion, sauce, lobster):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, onion, sauce, lobster. 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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