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Lobster Mayonnaise

A chilled lobster salad with mayonnaise, anchovies, olives, gherkins, beetroot, capers, and hard‑boiled egg.

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 the lobster and lettuce

  1. Cook the lobsters, then cut them in half lengthwise and carefully break the claws to remove the meat intact.

  2. Cut the remaining lobster into small pieces.

  3. Wash and dry the lettuce, then tear it into small pieces.

Assemble and serve

  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 on a round dish and cover it with stiff Mayonnaise sauce.

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

  4. 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

Lobsters
Provide the main body of meat, with the claw meat kept whole for presentation.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and bulk that lightens the rich mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise
Moistens the salad and forms a rich, smooth coating that holds the dish together.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that stands out against the mild lobster.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture cold. Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil and egg that can separate or turn greasy when warm, and the lobster spoils quickly at room temperature. Keeping everything on ice preserves the texture and food safety.

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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