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Lobster Salad

A salad of cooked lobster mixed with dressing and vinegar, garnished with celery or lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,627 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the lobster meat in small pieces without chopping.

  2. Wash the lobster meat in cold water and dry it.

  3. Grate the lobster on a plate for garnish.

Dress and serve

  1. Mix the lobster with the dressing using a fork and spoon.

  2. Add vinegar and mix well.

  3. Arrange the mixture on a flat dish.

  4. Wipe the celery or lettuce dry and place it around the dish.

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. Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + celerytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together251 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together692 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meaty texture and flavour of the salad.
Dressing
Adds moisture and richness so the lobster pieces stay coated and tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the dressing.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, 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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