Name: Lobster Cocktail
Ingredients: 2 lobsters, boiled and chilled; 6 tablespoons tomato catsup; 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar; 1 lemon; salt to taste; pepper to taste; cayenne pepper to taste

Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lobster Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the cold boiled lobsters into small pieces.
In each cocktail glass, place 3 tablespoons of lobster meat.

Season and serve

Add 3 tablespoons of tomato catsup and 1 tablespoon of tarragon vinegar.
Season with a dash of cayenne and salt to taste.
If not tart enough, add a few drops of lemon juice.

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.

Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together391 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 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: Provides the main sweet, firm meat that forms the body of the cocktail.
Tomato catsup: Adds sweetness, moisture and a tangy body that coats the lobster meat.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the catsup.
Lemon: Adds bright acidity that can be added drop by drop to adjust tartness.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, tarragon, vinegar, lemon, pepper):

Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Lettucefits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, tarragon, vinegar, lemon, pepper. 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.