Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: several lobsters, claws removed; 2 cucumbers, sliced; 4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered; slices of beetroot; slices of cooked lobster; slices of hake

Why it works: Cucumber and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 345 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Arrange a heap of salad on a serving platter.
Form the first row with sliced cucumbers.
Place the quartered hard-boiled eggs in the second row, points facing outward.
Layer the third row with slices of beetroot, lobster, and hake.

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.

Cucumber + beetroottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lobster + beetroottop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + cucumbertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together128 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs: Provide a firm, mild protein that adds contrast in texture and colour to the platter.
Cucumbers: Add cool, crisp moisture and a fresh, clean bite to the salad.