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Lobster Salad

A salad of boiled lobster meat served on lettuce with a dressing of egg yolk and oil, seasoned with salt and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and pepper 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

Cook the lobster

  1. Boil the lobster in salted water for about 20 minutes until bright red.

  2. Remove the lobster and let it cool.

  3. Crack the claws and disjoint them, then twist off the head.

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

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the salad oil while continuously beating.

  2. Season the dressing with a little salt and cayenne pepper.

Assemble the salad

  1. Chop the lettuce and place it on a dish, then lay the lobster meat on top and arrange the coral around the edges.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Lobster + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 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
Forms the main protein; boiling firms its flesh and turns the shell bright red.
Egg yolks
Act as an emulsifier, binding the oil and beaten yolks into a thick, stable dressing.
Salad oil
Adds richness and body to the dressing once emulsified with the egg yolks.
Lettuce
Provides a crisp, fresh base that carries the lobster and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the egg yolks. Oil must be added slowly while beating constantly so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the yolk's lecithin. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a thin, oily dressing that does not thicken.

Swap the lettuce

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

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

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