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Lobster in Aspic

A chilled aspic of lobster pieces set in gelatin, served with a lettuce salad and garnished with eggs, capers, and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Melt enough aspic jelly to thinly coat a quart border mold.

  2. Neatly arrange the lobster flesh and claws, cut into pieces, with tarragon leaves and capers in the mold.

  3. Fill the mold with the remaining aspic jelly and let it set.

Make the salad

  1. Wash, dry, and shred the lettuce, then mix it with the remaining lobster, oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

Unmould and serve

  1. Once the mold is set, turn it out onto a serving plate.

  2. Pile the salad in the center and around the mold, smoothing it with Mayonnaise sauce.

  3. Garnish with chopped hard-boiled eggs, lobster coral, claws, capers, and truffles.

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 + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lettuce + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Forms the main filling and provides the rich, sweet seafood flavor.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the lobster pieces in shape.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and freshness to the salad around the mold.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add creamy richness and texture as a garnish.
Oil
Carries flavor and gives the salad dressing a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and lobster.

The step that matters

Let the aspic set fully before unmoulding. Aspic is a gel that firms as it cools. If it has not set completely, the mold will not hold its shape when turned out and the lobster layer can collapse or tear.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, tarragon, capers, olive, truffle, vinegar. 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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