Why it works: Lobster and celery work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 251 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the lobster meat into large dice shapes and keep the reddest pieces separate.
Chop the celery and parboil the green celery leaves, then chop them as well.
Assemble and dress
Spread a layer of chopped celery on a flat dish.
Place the lobster on top, arranging the red pieces around the edge.
Add another layer of chopped celery on top and pour the mayonnaise dressing over it, ensuring it is well seasoned.
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.
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Lobster + celerytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together251 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
- Provides the main meaty texture and the bulk of the salad.
- Celery
- Adds a crisp, crunchy texture that contrasts with the soft lobster.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds richness and moisture, binding the salad and coating each piece.
The step that matters
Thin the mayonnaise dressing so it runs. A dressing that is too thick will sit on top rather than coating the lobster and celery evenly. Thinning it so it runs lets it spread through the layers and season each piece.
“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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