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
Cut the lobster meat and lettuce into small pieces.
Boil the eggs hard, then mash the yolks with a wooden or silver spoon.
Make the salad
In a bowl, combine the lobster meat, lettuce, mustard, vinegar, sweet oil, mashed yolks, salt, and Cayenne pepper, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Serve chilled.
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
- Forms the main body of the salad and provides its meaty texture.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Mashed yolks add richness and body to the dressing.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.
- Sweet oil
- Contributes fat and moistness, carrying flavour through the salad.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
- Cabbage lettuce
- Provides crisp leaves and a fresh, watery crunch to the salad.
The step that matters
Mixing the dressing into the lobster. Mustard and mashed yolks must be fully blended with the oil and vinegar so the dressing emulsifies and coats evenly; poorly mixed dressing separates and pools at the bottom of the bowl.
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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