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Lobster in Aspic

A chilled lobster salad set in aspic jelly with lettuce, tarragon, capers, olives, truffles, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster and mold

  1. Cook the lobsters.

  2. Cut the lobster flesh into neat pieces.

  3. Melt enough aspic jelly to cover the bottom of a quart border mold thinly.

  4. Arrange the lobster pieces, tarragon leaves, and capers in the mold.

  5. Fill the mold with the remaining aspic jelly.

  6. Let the mold set firmly.

Make the salad and serve

  1. Wash, dry, and shred the lettuce.

  2. Mix the shredded lettuce with the remaining lobster, oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

  3. Turn the mold out onto a serving platter.

  4. Pile the salad in the center of the platter.

  5. Mask the salad with a thick layer of Mayonnaise sauce.

  6. Garnish with chopped hard-boiled eggs, lobster coral, claws, capers, and truffles.

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. Lettuce + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lettuce + olivetop 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

Lobsters
Provides the main flesh and rich flavor of the dish.
Aspic jelly
Sets around the lobster to hold the mold together and give a clear, firm body.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and fresh bulk to the salad in the center.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and creaminess, coating the salad with a rich layer.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add a firm, mild texture and richness as a garnish.

The step that matters

Let the mold set firmly. Aspic is a gelatin-based jelly that sets as it cools. If the mold is turned out before it has set firmly, the shape will slump or break. Full setting also keeps the lobster pieces held in place.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, tarragon, capers, olive, truffle, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, tarragon, capers, olive, truffle, vinegar. 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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