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Lobster Salad

A salad of boiled lobster meat served over lettuce with a dressing of egg yolk, oil, mustard, vinegar, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lobster

  1. Boil a large lobster in salted boiling water for about 20 minutes until bright red.

  2. Remove the lobster and let it cool.

  3. Crack the claws and disjoint them, then twist off the head for garnishing.

  4. Split the body lengthwise and pick out the meat in bite-sized pieces, saving the coral separately.

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the salad oil while beating continuously.

  2. Mix in salt, Cayenne pepper, mustard, and vinegar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Chop the lettuce and place it on a dish, then lay the lobster meat on top and arrange the coral around the edges.

  2. Pour the dressing over the lobster just before serving.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

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

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.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil to form a thick, creamy dressing.
Salad oil
Adds richness and body to the dressing as it is beaten in.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Mixed mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury bite.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the egg yolks. Oil must be added slowly while beating continuously so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast causes the dressing to separate and stay runny rather than thick and creamy.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucethe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, pepper, mustard, 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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