Name: Cold Dressed Lobster and Crab
Ingredients: 2 lobsters; 2 crabs; remoulade or other sauce; shrimp chutney (optional); red Imperial Mayonnaise (optional)

Why it works: Lobster and crab work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 196 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Cold Dressed Lobster and Crab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

Remove the large claws from the lobsters and crack the shells without damaging the meat.
Split the tails open with a sharp knife.

Prepare the crab

Empty and clean the crab shells, then fill them with small flakes of crab meat and the soft part in the center.

Dish and serve

If using the soft part of the lobster's body, remove it before serving and mix it with the dressing.
Dish the lobster as shown in the engraving, with or without a napkin underneath.
For a decorative touch, fill the crab center with red Imperial Mayonnaise before serving.

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.

Lobster + crabtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Crab + shrimptop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together123 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Lobster + shrimptop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together403 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Crab + saucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobsters: Provide the main sweet, firm meat that forms the body of the dish.
Crabs: Provide flaked meat and soft center that add sweetness and richness to the dish.
Remoulade or other sauce: Adds moisture and tang that complements the cold shellfish.

“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.