Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 tablespoon oil; mustard to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; cold roast or boiled meat, thinly sliced; parsley for garnish; slices of fat from the meat; red part of the lobster, cut

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

In a bowl, combine vinegar, oil, mustard, and salt. Mix well, then gradually add thin slices of cold roast or boiled meat, shaking to coat.

Rest and serve

Cover the bowl and let the salad sit for 3 hours before serving.
Garnish with parsley and slices of fat from the meat.
Add the red part of the lobster to the salad for contrast.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,588 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + lobstertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together909 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
Oil: Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour across the salad.
Mustard: Adds sharp flavour and helps the oil and vinegar stay combined.
Cold roast or boiled meat: Forms the body of the salad, soaking up the dressing as it rests.