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Lobster Salad

A salad of boiled lobster meat served over lettuce with a dressing of egg yolks and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,580 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lobster

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.

  2. Add the lobster and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes until bright red.

  3. Remove the lobster and let it cool.

  4. Crack the claws and disjoint the head for garnishing.

  5. Split the body in half lengthwise and pick out the meat in bite-sized pieces, saving the coral separately.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the olive oil while continuing to beat until well combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Chop the lettuce and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Arrange the lobster meat on top of the lettuce and place the coral around the edge.

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 + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + olivetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lettuce + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate flavour of the salad.
Egg yolks
Act as an emulsifier, binding the olive oil into a smooth, thick mixture.
Olive oil
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the dressing body.
Lettuce
Forms the crisp, fresh base that holds the lobster and adds moisture and crunch.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil to the egg yolks. Oil must be added slowly while beating, so that it disperses into tiny droplets held by the yolk's lecithin. Adding it too fast causes the emulsion to break and the dressing to separate.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, olive. 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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