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Lobster Salad

A salad of lobster meat, coral, lettuce, boiled egg yolks, and a mustard vinaigrette.

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

Prepare

  1. Mince the lobster meat and claws finely.

  2. Mash the coral and mix it with the chopped lettuce.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine black pepper, cayenne, mustard, salad oil, and vinegar to make the sauce.

  2. Mash the yolks of the boiled eggs and mix them with the coral and sauce.

Serve

  1. Add the mixture to the salad 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. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 savory flavor.
Boiled egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and give it a smooth, creamy body.
French mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar into the sauce.
Salad oil
Provides fat that gives the sauce richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the oil and yolks.

The step that matters

Add the mixture to the salad just before serving.. Acidic dressing softens lettuce and the oil-based sauce can thin or separate over time, so holding the dressing until the last moment keeps the salad crisp and the sauce cohesive.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, mustard, vinegar, 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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