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Salad

Asparagus and Lobster Salad

A salad of boiled asparagus and diced lobster seasoned with cayenne, salt, vinegar, topped with mayonnaise and béchamel, served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus and Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape, wash, and cut the asparagus into ½ inch pieces.

  2. Boil the asparagus in salted water until tender, then strain and let cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a salad bowl, combine the cooled asparagus and diced lobster.

  2. Season with cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and vinegar.

  3. Dish the mixture into small pyramids on lettuce leaves.

  4. Mix mayonnaise with the Bechamel sauce and serve on top.

  5. Garnish with a piece of claw meat.

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. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 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

Asparagus
Provides the main crisp-tender vegetable texture and body to the salad.
Lobster
Supplies the main protein and savory flavor of the salad.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that coats the asparagus and lobster.
Bechamel sauce
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the dressing.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus until tender, then cool it. Overcooking makes asparagus soft and waterlogged, while cooling it promptly stops residual cooking so it keeps a pleasant texture and does not dilute the dressing.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, pepper, vinegar, lettuce, sauce, meat. 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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