Name: Cold Dressed Lobster and Crab
Ingredients: 2 moderate-sized lobsters; 2 crabs; remoulade or other sauce; 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

2 moderate-sized lobsters
2 crabs
remoulade or other sauce
Imperial Mayonnaise (optional)

Directions

Remove the large claws from the lobsters and crack the shells without damaging the meat.
Split the lobster tails open with a sharp knife.
Serve the lobster on a plate, with or without a napkin underneath.
If using the soft part of the lobster body, remove it before serving and mix it with the dressing.
Clean the crab shells thoroughly and fill them with small flakes of crab meat and the soft part.
For a decorative touch, fill the center of the crab 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 + saucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together238 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).