Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: 1 can lobster; 5 hard boiled eggs, chopped; ½ cup chopped cabbage; a little minced parsley; 1 chopped green mango; a dash of cayenne; salt to taste; salad dressing

Why it works: Cabbage and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

Press out the juice from the lobster and mince it coarsely.

Combine and serve

In a bowl, combine the minced lobster, chopped eggs, chopped cabbage, minced parsley, and chopped mango.
Add a dash of cayenne and salt to taste.
Toss all ingredients lightly together.
Serve with salad dressing.

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.

Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together660 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + mangotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + mangotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together31 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together890 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: Forms the main body of the salad and supplies its meaty texture.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Green mango: Adds tartness and a crisp, fresh bite that balances the rich ingredients.
Cabbage: Contributes crunch and moisture to the salad.