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Lobster Salad

A chilled lobster salad with French dressing, dry mustard, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, egg yolks, olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 the lobster

  1. Marinate the lobster meat with French dressing.

  2. Keep the marinated lobster on ice until ready to use.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. In a bowl, mix dry mustard, sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add the egg yolks and stir well.

  3. Slowly stir in the olive oil.

  4. Add vinegar or lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix half of the mayonnaise with the lobster meat.

  2. Create nests or cups with the lettuce leaves.

  3. Break the fuller lettuce leaves to mix with the lobster.

  4. Place a spoonful of lobster on each lettuce cup.

  5. Top each cup with a spoonful of mayonnaise.

  6. Garnish with capers and lobster claws if using fresh lobster.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main protein and the bulk of the salad.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the olive oil so the dressing thickens into a smooth mayonnaise.
Olive oil
Supplies fat that gives the mayonnaise its rich, creamy texture.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Dry mustard
Helps hold the emulsion together and adds a sharp, savoury note.

The step that matters

Slowly stir in the olive oil. Oil must be added gradually to the egg yolks so it disperses into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated sauce instead of a thick mayonnaise.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

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