Name: Lobster with Mustard Sauce
Ingredients: 1 ml pepper; ½ teaspoon mixed mustard; 2 tablespoons vinegar; lobster

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lobster with Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

1 ml pepper
½ teaspoon mixed mustard
2 tablespoons vinegar
lobster

Directions

Combine pepper, mixed mustard, and vinegar in a bowl.
Pour this mixture over the lobster just before serving.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + lobstertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Vinegar + lobstertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together692 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).