Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lobster
Cut the lobster in half from head to tail.
Divide each lobster half again.
Remove the meat from the shell and claws, being careful not to break it.
Wash the shell and set it aside for serving.
Cut the lobster meat into small squares.
Keep the claw ends whole for garnish.
Make the salad
Break the lettuces into small pieces, reserving the hearts for garnish.
Mix the lettuce with half the endive and enough mayonnaise to coat it well.
Add the lobster meat to the lettuce mixture.
Mix well, adding more mayonnaise if needed.
Pile the mixture in a pyramid shape in a salad bowl.
Garnish and serve
Place the lobster shell upright in the center.
Arrange the lettuce hearts and best pieces of endive to cover the mixture.
Create a border with mustard and cress around the dish.
Sprinkle chopped aspic jelly over the salad.
Place the claw meat near the center.
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.
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Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together284 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Endive + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together121 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lobster + mustardtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together394 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together411 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
- Lobster
- Provides the main meat, whose sweet flavor and tender texture form the centerpiece of the salad.
- Mayonnaise
- Coats the lettuce and lobster, adding richness, fat and moisture to the salad.
- Lettuces
- Forms the crisp, leafy base that gives the salad its bulk and fresh texture.
- Endive
- Adds a crisp, slightly bitter leafy texture that balances the rich mayonnaise.
The step that matters
Remove the meat from the shell and claws, being careful not to break it.. Lobster meat is delicate and cooks tender; rough handling tears it into shreds, while gentle removal keeps larger pieces that look and eat better.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, lettuce, endive):
- Beetrootfits better
- Mustardthe original
- Spinachfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, lettuce, endive. 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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