Why it works: Lobster and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 411 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the cut lobster like you would chicken.
Remove the leaves from the head of lettuce one by one and wash them in cold water.
Soak the washed leaves in ice water for about 10 minutes, then shake off excess water.
Chill the leaves in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Assemble
Arrange two or three leaves together to form a shell on a salad dish.
Mix half of the mayonnaise dressing with the lobster and place a tablespoon of this mixture in each lettuce shell.
Top each spoonful of lobster with a tablespoon of the remaining dressing.
Alternatively, tear the lettuce leaves coarsely and mix them with the lobster, garnishing the dish with whole leaves.
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.
-
Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together411 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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.
- Lettuce
- Forms a crisp, cool shell that holds the lobster and adds fresh texture.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds richness and moisture, binding the lobster into a creamy filling.
The step that matters
Shaking off excess water from the soaked leaves. Leftover water dilutes the mayonnaise dressing and makes the lettuce shells soggy, so the leaves should be dried well before assembly.
“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.
More lobster salad recipes
You might also like
Chicken Salad623 recipes
Salad Dressing491 recipes
Tomato Salad179 recipes
Cold Slaw160 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.