Name: Lobster Salad
Ingredients: 1 quart cooked lobster, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; Lettuce, prepared as for salad; ½ pint dressing

Why it works: Pepper and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lobster Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

Chop the cooked lobster finely with a sharp knife.
In a bowl, mix the vinegar, salt, and pepper, then season the lobster with the mixture and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Assemble the salad

Prepare the lettuce as you would for a salad.
Combine the lobster and lettuce in a 1:2 ratio (lobster to lettuce).
Add dressing to taste, using about ½ pint for three pints of salad.

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.

Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + lettucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together692 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked lobster: Forms the main body of the salad and provides its flavor and texture.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the lobster.
Dressing: Adds moisture and richness, coating the lobster and lettuce.