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Salad

Chicken or Lobster Salad

A salad of shredded chicken and lobster with celery, lettuce, eggs, and a mustard‑olive oil dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Chicken or Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the dark meat from the chicken.

  2. Discard the dark meat, the liquor, and the hard ends of the lobster.

  3. Combine the shredded chicken and lobster with sliced celery in a bowl.

  4. Moisten the mixture with a little dressing.

  5. Tear the lettuce leaves.

  6. Place the torn leaves under, through, and on top of the mixture.

Make the dressing

  1. Cool the hard-boiled eggs in cold water.

  2. Peel the eggs.

  3. Cut the eggs in half, reserving the yolks.

  4. Slice the egg whites into rings and set aside.

  5. Mash the yolks with a spoon.

  6. Beat in the two raw eggs.

  7. Add salt, pepper, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and cream. Mix well.

  8. Pour the dressing over the prepared meat.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with egg rings, lobster coral, and parsley.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Cooked chicken meat
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main savoury protein.
Cooked lobster meat
Adds the main shellfish flavour and tender, delicate texture to the salad.
Raw eggs
Bind the dressing and give it a smooth, creamy body when beaten into the mashed yolks.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks are mashed into the dressing, adding richness and body.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the eggs and oil.

The step that matters

Beating the raw eggs into the mashed yolks. Raw eggs must be beaten in gradually so the mixture emulsifies smoothly with the yolks and oil. Adding them too quickly or unevenly can leave a lumpy or curdled dressing, and the raw eggs should be handled with care for food safety.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, lobster, lettuce, egg, pepper, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, lobster, lettuce, egg, pepper, mustard. 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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