Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 cold boiled chicken; 1 cup celery, cut into 1-inch pieces; mayonnaise, to taste; lettuce, for garnish; parsley, for garnish; hard-boiled egg, for garnish

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the cold boiled chicken into neat strips or pieces.
Mix the chicken with an equal quantity of celery.
Cut the celery stalks into 1-inch pieces and then into thin strips.

Dress and serve

Combine the chicken and celery with a few spoons of mayonnaise.
Arrange the mixture neatly on a dish garnished with lettuce, parsley, or hard-boiled egg.
Pour the remaining mayonnaise over the meat and serve.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,483 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,421 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled chicken: Provides the main body and protein of the salad, giving it substance and bite.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, slightly watery texture that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess, binding the chicken and celery together and keeping the salad moist.