Why it works: Mustard and lettuce 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
Prepare
Extract the meat from the body and claws of the boiled lobster and cut it into small pieces.
Mash the coral with the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and mix with the lobster meat.
Season with coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and mustard.
Dress and serve
In a separate bowl, beat the raw egg yolks until thick as cream, then mix in the salad oil and vinegar.
Pour the dressing over the lobster mixture and serve on lettuce 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.
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Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together855 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster meat
- Forms the main body of the salad and provides its sweet, delicate flavor.
- Raw egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and vinegar into a thick, creamy dressing.
- Salad oil
- Adds richness and smooth texture to the dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Their yolks mash into the mixture, adding body and a mellow, creamy texture.
- Mustard
- Adds sharpness and helps stabilize the emulsified dressing.
The step that matters
Beating the raw egg yolks into the dressing. Yolks must be beaten thick before the oil and vinegar are added slowly; if the oil goes in too fast or the yolks are too thin, the emulsion breaks and the dressing turns greasy and separated.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, egg, pepper, mustard, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, 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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