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Lobster Salad

A salad made with boiled lobster, veal broth, mace, onion, bay leaf, lemon pickle, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lobster

  1. Boil the lobsters until half cooked.

  2. Remove the meat carefully and place it in a stewpan.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add veal broth, mace, onion, bay leaf, lemon pickle, and vinegar.

  2. Simmer until the lobster is fully cooked.

  3. Remove the lobster from the liquid 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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Veal broth
Adds moisture and savory depth to the simmering liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the dish.
Lemon pickle
Adds sharp citrus and salty acidity to the liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer until the lobster is fully cooked. Lobster meat turns firm and rubbery when overcooked, while undercooked meat stays soft and may be unsafe. Because the lobster was only part-cooked first, the simmer must be timed by the meat's appearance and texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, veal, onion, lemon, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, veal, onion, lemon, vinegar. 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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