Why it works: Cucumber and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 345 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the lobster with cucumber, beetroot, and hard boiled eggs.
Dress the mixture with oil and vinegar or made salad dressing.
Arrange in a salad bowl.
Garnish with slices of cucumber, beetroot, and egg, and pieces of lobster.
Create little heaps of the coral, arranging the colors to contrast nicely.
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.
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Cucumber + beetroottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Beetroot + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,630 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lobster + beetroottop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together94 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Lobster + cucumbertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together128 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the beetroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, cucumber, egg, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Beetrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cucumber, egg, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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