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Lobster in Aspic

A chilled aspic mold filled with lobster, lettuce, and seasonings, topped with mayonnaise and garnished with eggs and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic mold

  1. Melt enough aspic jelly to thinly cover a quart border mold.

  2. When it begins to set, arrange the lobster flesh (cut into neat pieces), tarragon leaves, and capers in the mold.

  3. Fill the mold with the remaining aspic jelly.

Prepare the salad

  1. Wash, dry, and shred the lettuce.

  2. Mix the shredded lettuce with the remaining lobster, oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Once the mold is firmly set, turn it out and pile the salad in the center, masking it with a thick layer of Mayonnaise sauce.

  2. Garnish with chopped hard-boiled eggs, lobster coral, claws, capers, and truffles.

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 + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 and sweet, delicate flavor in both the mold and the salad.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that encases the lobster pieces and holds the mold's shape.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add a firm, creamy texture and a mild richness to the garnish.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and freshness to the salad at the center of the mold.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and creaminess, coating the salad with a rich, smooth layer.

The step that matters

Melting and setting the aspic in layers. Aspic must be only just liquid and cooled until it begins to set before the lobster goes in; if it is too hot, it melts the layer below, and if too cold or set, the pieces will not adhere. Letting each layer firm before adding the next keeps the mold clear and the pieces in place.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, tarragon, capers, olive, truffle, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, tarragon, capers, olive, truffle, vinegar. 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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