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Lobster Salad

A salad of boiled lobster meat mixed with shredded lettuce, seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar, topped with egg yolks and optional garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the lobster cool.

  3. Crack the shell.

  4. Remove the meat in large pieces.

  5. Save the coral for garnish.

  6. Cut the lobster meat into small pieces.

  7. Season the lobster pieces with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Prepare the lettuce

  1. Wash the lettuce thoroughly.

  2. Dry the lettuce.

  3. Shred the lettuce.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a bowl, layer the shredded lettuce and seasoned lobster alternately until all ingredients are used.

  2. Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving.

  3. Sprinkle the coral over the salad.

  4. Garnish with sliced eggs, beetroot, or nasturtium flowers if desired.

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

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

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together692 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Its protein becomes firm and tender when boiled, giving the salad its main texture and body.
Lettuce
Provides crisp, watery structure and fresh bulk that holds the layers together.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and emulsify with the dressing to make it smooth and thick.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the lobster's sweet flavour and balances the rich dressing.

The step that matters

Boil the lobster for 20 minutes. Overcooking makes lobster meat tough and rubbery, while undercooking leaves it soft and unsafe. Timing the boil by the lobster's size and cooling it promptly keeps the meat tender and juicy.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

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