Skip to main content
Main

Imitation Lobster

A cold fish salad with onion, chillies, mustard, egg yolk, vinegar, cream, and optional roe, served with green salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Imitation Lobster

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold boiled fish into small slices.

  2. Add roe if available.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix in the chopped onion, green chillies, mustard, mashed egg yolk, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add enough vinegar to moisten the mixture.

  3. Stir in the cream or sweet oil.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with green salad.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled fish
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky texture that the seasoning coats.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Mashed into the mixture, it adds richness and a creamy body.
Cream or sweet oil
Adds fat, softening the mixture and giving it a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and moistens the mixture.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the fish and egg.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, roe, mustard, egg, pepper, vinegar, cream):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, roe, mustard, egg, pepper, vinegar, cream. 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes