Name: Salad of Lobster or Crab
Ingredients: 1 large onion, chopped; 2 sour apples, chopped; meat of 1 crab or lobster; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 2 tablespoons vinegar; cayenne pepper, to taste; salt, to taste

Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salad of Lobster or Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the onion, sour apples, and crab or lobster meat together.
Pour the olive oil and vinegar over the mixture.

Season and serve

Season with cayenne pepper and salt to taste.
Mix well and serve.

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.

Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apple + olivetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,565 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab or lobster meat: Provides the main body and sweet, rich seafood flavor of the salad.
Sour apples: Add tart acidity and a crisp, juicy bite that contrasts with the soft seafood.
Onion: Adds sharp aroma and a pungent bite that stands up to the seafood.
Olive oil: Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the salad a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavors and balances the richness of the oil.

Swap the apple

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

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Cherryfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, meat, olive, 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.