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Lobster Mayonnaise

A chilled lobster salad topped with hard‑boiled egg, anchovy, gherkin, beetroot, olives, capers, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Lobster Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lobster in half lengthwise and carefully break the claws.

  2. Remove the meat intact if possible, and cut the remaining lobster into small pieces.

  3. Wash and dry the lettuces, then tear them into small pieces.

Assemble

  1. In a bowl, combine the lettuce and small pieces of lobster, adding enough Mayonnaise to moisten everything.

  2. Shape the mixture into a dome in the center of a round dish and cover it with stiff Mayonnaise sauce.

  3. Garnish with pieces of hard-boiled egg, strips of anchovy, slices of gherkin, decorative beetroot, olives, and capers.

Serve

  1. Keep on ice until ready to serve, and serve as cool as possible.

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. Beetroot + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Beetroot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Capers + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main sweet, firm meat that forms the body of the dish.
Lettuces
Adds crisp texture and freshness that contrasts with the rich mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds moisture and richness, binding the lobster and lettuce and coating the dome.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds a soft, mild texture and creamy richness as a garnish.
Gherkins
Adds acidity and a sharp crunch that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise.

The step that matters

Keep the lobster cold. Mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg and oil that can separate or spoil when warm, and cold keeps the lobster firm and the dish food-safe, so it should stay on ice until serving.

Swap the beetroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, olive, capers, lettuce, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Beetrootthe original
  4. Welsh onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, olive, capers, lettuce, sauce. 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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