Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: cooked lobster (red part); mixed salad greens; olive oil; vinegar

Why it works: Olive and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,297 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

cooked lobster (red part)
mixed salad greens
olive oil
vinegar

Directions

Prepare a salad with mixed salad greens.
Cut the red part of the cooked lobster and add it to the salad.
Drizzle lightly with olive oil and vinegar, as shellfish absorb strong flavors.
Serve the salad on a dish, not in a bowl.

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.

Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Lobster + olivetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together252 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together692 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).