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
Prepare the chicken and celery
Boil the chickens and save the water for soup.
Let them cool completely.
Remove the skin and fat, disjoint the chickens, and cut the meat into small pieces no larger than 1 inch.
Wash and split the celery, cutting the white part into 1-inch pieces.
Mix the chicken and celery in a deep dish, cover, and set aside.
Make the dressing
In a flat dish, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with a spoon.
Add salt, cayenne pepper, mustard, vinegar, and sweet oil to the mashed yolks.
If using, add the raw egg yolk or cream and mix until smooth.
Combine and serve
Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, and mix well before serving.
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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Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Chickens
- Provide the cooked meat that forms the body of the salad.
- Celery
- Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the soft meat.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Their mashed richness thickens the dressing and gives it a creamy body.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the oil into the dressing.
- Sweet oil
- Supplies fat for a smooth, rich dressing that coats the chicken and celery.
- French vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich fat.
The step that matters
Make the dressing smooth before combining. Mashed yolks, mustard and oil must be blended thoroughly so the fat emulsifies into a smooth, creamy dressing. Added in lumps or poorly mixed, the oil separates and the dressing coats the chicken unevenly.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, pepper, mustard, vinegar, butter):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper, mustard, vinegar, butter. 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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