Name: Lobster Salad Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 1 lobster, cooked and shelled; ½ cup mayonnaise; 1 lettuce heart; 2 teaspoons anchovy essence (optional); 2 teaspoons fish stock (optional); 1 hard-boiled egg, yolk only; coarse sea salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); decorative items like gherkins, truffles, or olives

Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Lobster Salad Mayonnaise

Ingredients

1 lobster, cooked and shelled
½ cup mayonnaise
1 lettuce heart
2 teaspoons anchovy essence (optional)
2 teaspoons fish stock (optional)
1 hard-boiled egg, yolk only
coarse sea salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
decorative items like gherkins, truffles, or olives

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the lobster by cutting it into bite-sized pieces.
In a bowl, mix the lobster with mayonnaise, anchovy essence, and fish stock if using.

Assemble and serve

Place the lettuce heart on a serving plate and coat it with thick mayonnaise.
Sprinkle the yolk of the hard-boiled egg over the lettuce.
Decorate with gherkins, truffles, or olives as desired.
Serve chilled.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together470 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Anchovy + fishtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together637 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Fish + truffletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster: Provides the main meaty texture and flavor of the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds richness and moisture, binding the lobster and coating the lettuce.
Lettuce heart: Gives a crisp, cool base that contrasts with the rich lobster.
Hard-boiled egg yolk: Adds creamy richness and a soft, crumbly texture on top.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, anchovy, fish, egg, pepper, truffle):

Asparagusfits better
Capsicumfits better
Spinachfits about as well
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, anchovy, fish, egg, pepper, truffle. 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.