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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, and a custard-like dressing of eggs, butter, mustard, vinegar, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken in just enough water to cover it, adding salt while cooking, until tender.

  2. Once cold, remove the meat from the bones, cutting it into equal-sized pieces.

  3. Chop the celery to match the size of the chicken pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the butter, mustard, red pepper, and vinegar.

  2. Set the mixture over hot water, stirring constantly until it thickens like custard.

Combine and serve

  1. Once cooled, combine the dressing with the chicken and celery.

  2. Pour it over the chicken while warm and add the celery once cooled.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing into a custard-like texture as they set with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the rich dressing.
Chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the salad.

The step that matters

Thickening the dressing over hot water. Egg proteins set gradually at moderate heat, so the mixture can curdle if it overheats. Constant stirring over gentle hot water keeps it smooth and custard-like.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, butter, mustard, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, butter, mustard, pepper, 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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