Name: Devilled Lobster
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons vinegar; 1 teaspoon made mustard; a good pinch of cayenne pepper; boiled eggs for garnishing; salt; lobster from a can; butter

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Devilled Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Open the lobster can and empty it into a bowl an hour before using. Mince the lobster evenly.
In a saucepan, combine vinegar, butter, and seasoning. Heat until it simmers.
Add the minced lobster to the saucepan. Cook slowly, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Transfer to a deep dish and garnish with slices of boiled egg.
Serve hot with buttered Boston crackers.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + lobstertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Cucumberfits less well
Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, egg, lobster, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.