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Lobster Salad

A salad of lobster meat and lettuce dressed with egg yolk vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare

  1. Pick the lobster meat into bits, saving the coral separately for garnishing.

  2. Cut the lettuce into large pieces and place it in a dish.

  3. Lay the lobster meat over the lettuce and arrange the coral around the outside.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the salad oil while beating continuously.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mixed mustard, and vinegar to the dressing, mixing well.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the lobster and serve.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provides the main protein and the flavour centre of the salad.
Lettuce
Forms the crisp base that holds the lobster and dressing.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the salad oil into a thick, creamy dressing.
Salad oil
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing its smooth body.
Mixed mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy note.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.

The step that matters

Slowly adding the oil to the egg yolks. Oil must be added slowly while beating so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk lecithin. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated dressing.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, pepper, mustard, 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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