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Lobster Salad

A salad of chopped lobster and celery dressed with mustard, butter, cayenne pepper, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped lobsters and celery.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the mustard, softened butter, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Add the egg yolks to the mustard mixture and blend well.

  4. Pour the mixture over the lobster and celery, and stir to combine.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + eggtop 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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and mustard into a thick, creamy dressing that coats the salad.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps bind the dressing together.
Lobsters
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild crunch to the salad.

The step that matters

Blend the egg yolks into the mustard mixture. Egg yolks hold fat and liquid together as an emulsion. Adding them too fast or without blending well can cause the dressing to split or look greasy instead of creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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