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
Remove the meat from the lobster and cut it into small pieces.
Chop the lettuce into small pieces.
Boil the eggs hard, then mash the yolks with a spoon and enough oil to make a smooth paste.
Make the dressing and serve
Add the vinegar, mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt to the yolks and mix well.
Combine the dressing with the lobster and lettuce, and serve immediately before the salad wilts.
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.
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Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster
- Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the salad.
- Hard boiled egg yolks
- Mashed with oil to form a smooth, creamy base for the dressing.
- Sweet oil
- Combines with the yolks to make a smooth, emulsified paste that carries the dressing.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp flavour and helps the dressing hold together as an emulsion.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich yolk and oil.
- Cabbage lettuce
- Supplies crisp, fresh leaves that give the salad its texture.
The step that matters
Serve immediately after dressing. Vinegar and salt draw water from the crisp lettuce, so it wilts quickly once dressed. Serving straight away keeps the leaves crisp and the texture pleasant.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, mustard, vinegar, egg, pepper, lettuce):
- Horseradishfits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, mustard, vinegar, egg, pepper, lettuce. 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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