Skip to main content
Salad

Lobster Salads

A salad made from cooked lobster, garnished with parsley, pickled cucumbers, capers, anchovies, nasturtium flowers, and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Capers and horseradish share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 82 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lobster Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Plate the lobster

  1. If serving in the shell, divide the lobster and place the head in the center, laying a half on each side.

  2. Break the claws carefully to avoid damaging the meat and place one at each end.

  3. If serving out of the shell, remove the lobster as whole as possible and dress it on a dish.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with parsley.

  2. Garnish with pickled cucumbers, capers, anchovies, nasturtium flowers, parsley, and horseradish.

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. Capers + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein, whose tender meat is the centrepiece of the dish.
Pickled cucumbers
Add acidity and a sharp crunch that cut through the rich lobster meat.
Capers
Contribute briny acidity that balances the sweetness of the lobster.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth and saltiness that complements the shellfish.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat that brightens and cuts the richness of the dish.

The step that matters

Removing the lobster meat whole. Lobster meat cooks quickly and turns firm and rubbery if overcooked, and tearing it damages its appearance. Handling it gently when removing and breaking the claws keeps the pieces intact and the texture tender.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, cucumber, capers, horseradish):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, cucumber, capers, horseradish. 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.

More lobster salad recipes

Dressing 7Cold 3 See all 290 →

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes