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 ↓
Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken and celery
Boil the chicken until tender and remove all fat, gristle, and skin.
Mince the chicken meat into small pieces, but do not hash it.
Cut the celery into pieces about ¼ inch long, and mix it with the chicken.
Set the mixture in a cool place, like the ice chest.
Dress and serve
Prepare a mayonnaise dressing.
When ready to serve, pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, tossing to mix thoroughly.
Garnish with celery tips, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce leaves, cold boiled beets, capers, or olives.
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.
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Lettuce + caperstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Capers + olivetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,688 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,033 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together405 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the main meaty body and substance of the salad.
- Celery
- Adds crisp texture and a fresh, watery crunch that contrasts the soft chicken.
- Mayonnaise dressing
- Adds fat and creaminess that binds the chicken and celery and keeps them moist.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture cold before dressing. Chilling the chicken and celery keeps the mixture firm and food-safe, and dressing it only at serving time prevents the mayonnaise from thinning and the celery from going limp.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, lettuce, capers, olive):
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, lettuce, capers, olive. 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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