Name: Petits Souffles D'howard
Ingredients: 1 lobster; 3 tablespoons mayonnaise; ½ pint aspic; ½ cup tomato sauce

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Petits Souffles D'howard

Ingredients

1 lobster
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ pint aspic
½ cup tomato sauce

Directions

Whisk the mayonnaise, aspic, and tomato sauce until it becomes white.
Cut the lobster into neat pieces and add it to the mixture.
Fill ramekin cases with the mixture and set aside.
Remove the paper and garnish with bits of lobster and parsley, or serve with additional mayonnaise.

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.

Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lobster + tomatotop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).