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Lobster Salad

A salad of lettuce and canned lobster, optionally dressed with tartare sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the lobster meat carefully.

  2. Reserve the coral for garnishing.

  3. Cut half of the lettuce into small pieces.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the lettuce with the lobster and dressing.

  2. Arrange the mixture on the remaining lettuce leaves.

  3. Garnish with the reserved coral.

  4. Serve with tartare sauce if desired.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lettuce + lobstertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and flavour of the salad.
Lettuce
Forms the crisp, fresh base that holds the salad together.
Dressing
Adds moisture and flavour, coating the lettuce and lobster.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, sauce. 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.

More lobster salad recipes

Dressing 7Cold 3 See all 290 →

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