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Lobster Salad

A salad of lobster meat, lettuce, eggs, and a dressing of yolks, mustard, oil, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 the lobster

  1. Remove the poisonous part from the lobsters, including the head and vein, and discard them.

  2. Break the shells with a hammer and save the liquor and spawn.

  3. Chop the lobster meat very fine and wash and dry the coral or roe.

  4. Grate the coral or roe and set aside for later use.

Make the salad

  1. Chop the lettuce and mix it with the chopped lobster and salt.

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and mix with the lobster fat.

  2. Add the raw eggs and dry mustard, stirring thoroughly.

  3. Slowly add the sweet oil or butter, a few drops at a time, while beating the mixture.

  4. Once well combined, add the vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, beating until creamy.

  5. Pour the dressing over the salad 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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provides the main meat and flavor of the salad.
Raw eggs
Emulsify with the oil and mustard to build a thick, creamy dressing.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks are mashed into the dressing, adding richness and body.
Sweet oil or butter
Fat added slowly to the eggs, forming a stable, creamy emulsion.
Dry mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds a sharp, savory bite.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the oil or butter slowly. Oil must be added a few drops at a time while beating, so the egg yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast causes the dressing to split and turn oily instead of creamy.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

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

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