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Lobster Salad

A chilled lobster salad dressed with a raw egg yolk and olive oil vinaigrette, garnished with parsley and egg white rings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster.

  2. Carefully remove the meat.

  3. Chill the lobster meat on ice.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, rub the raw egg yolks and hard-boiled eggs until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the olive oil while mixing.

  3. Stir in the vinegar, salt, and black pepper until well combined.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the lobster just before serving.

  2. Garnish with parsley and rings of hard-boiled egg white.

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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg yolks
Emulsify the olive oil into a smooth, thick dressing that holds together.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a creamy, rich texture to the dressing.
Olive oil
Provides fat and richness, forming the body of the dressing when emulsified.
Lobster
Supplies the main meat and mild sweetness that the dressing coats.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich dressing and balances the fat.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil gradually. Oil must be added slowly while mixing so the egg yolk lecithin can emulsify it. Adding it too fast makes the dressing separate and turn oily instead of thick and smooth.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, olive, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, olive, vinegar, pepper. 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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