Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 chickens; 3 bunches of celery (white parts only), chopped; 9 hard-boiled egg yolks, mashed; ½ cup sweet oil; ½ pint vinegar; 1 teaspoon salt; pepper to taste

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chickens until cooked, then let them cool.
Remove the skin and bones from the chickens and chop the meat finely.
Add the chopped celery to the chicken.

Dress and serve

Before serving, mix in the mashed egg yolks, sweet oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Serve chilled.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens: Provide the main cooked meat that forms the body of the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Mashed into the dressing to add richness and a creamy body.
Sweet oil: Adds fat for moisture and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness.