Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Lobster Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the lobster meat from the body and claws finely.
Mash the coral and mix it with the scalded, chopped lettuce.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, combine black pepper, cayenne, mustard, salad oil, and vinegar to make the sauce.
Mash the yolks of the boiled eggs and mix them with the coral and sauce.
Serve
Add the mixture to the salad just before serving.
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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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together855 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lobster meat
- Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the salad.
- Boiled eggs
- Yolks mash into the sauce, adding richness and body to the dressing.
- Salad oil
- Supplies fat that carries flavour and gives the sauce a smooth, emulsified texture.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the richness of oil and yolk.
- French mustard
- Helps bind the oil and vinegar into a stable sauce and adds a sharp note.
The step that matters
Add the mixture to the salad just before serving. Acid in the vinegar and the moisture in the sauce keep working on the lettuce and lobster, so adding the dressing too early softens the greens and dulls their texture.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, lobster, pepper, mustard, vinegar, egg):
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, lobster, pepper, mustard, vinegar, egg. 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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