Why it works: Lobster and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 411 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Break up the lobster into pieces.
Chop the hard boiled eggs and add them to the lobster.
Stir in the mayonnaise until well combined.
Serve the mixture on a bed of lettuce.
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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Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together411 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,484 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,301 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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.
- Mayonnaise
- Binds the mixture and adds richness and moisture.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Add creamy texture and a mild, soft body to the salad.
- Lettuce
- Forms a crisp, cool bed that contrasts with the rich salad.
The step that matters
Stir in the mayonnaise until well combined. Mayonnaise is an emulsion that can separate or turn watery if overworked or mixed with warm ingredients. Stirring gently until evenly coated keeps the salad creamy and holds the pieces together.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, 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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