Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: 1 good sized lobster, chopped finely; 1 head of lettuce, chopped; Salad dressing; Small claws from the lobster for garnishing; Coral from the lobster for garnishing; Few leaves of lettuce for garnishing

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

1 good sized lobster, chopped finely
1 head of lettuce, chopped
Salad dressing
Small claws from the lobster for garnishing
Coral from the lobster for garnishing
Few leaves of lettuce for garnishing

Directions

Prepare

Chop the lobster finely, reserving the small claws and coral.
Chop the head of lettuce, saving a few leaves for garnish.

Assemble and garnish

Mix the lobster with salad dressing on a platter.
Garnish the edge with coral, lettuce leaves, and lobster claws.

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.

Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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 supplies its rich, sweet flavour.
Lettuce: Adds crisp texture and fresh bulk to the salad.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and flavour, coating the lobster and lettuce.

“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.