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Lobster Salad

A salad of chopped lettuce and lobster with a dressing of egg yolk, raw egg, mustard, pepper, butter, sugar, lemon juice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard 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

  1. In a large bowl, mix the chopped lettuce and lobster together.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the yolk of the hard-boiled egg, raw egg, mustard, pepper, melted butter, sugar, lemon juice, and vinegar.

  3. Pour the dressing over the lobster and lettuce mixture and mix well.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main body of the salad as the protein element.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and bulk to the salad.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Helps emulsify and thicken the dressing, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Raw egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dressing together.
Melted butter
Contributes fat and richness to the dressing.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the dressing to the lobster and lettuce. Lettuce wilts and loses crispness once dressed, so the dressing should be added just before serving. Mixing gently keeps the lobster pieces intact and the dressing evenly distributed.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, mustard, pepper, butter, sugar, lemon. 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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