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Salad

Dressing for Chicken Salad

A dressing made from mashed egg yolks, raw egg, mustard, red pepper, salad oil, vinegar, celery, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Dressing for Chicken Salad

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

Dressing for Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs very smooth.

  2. Beat the raw egg lightly and mix it with the mashed yolks.

  3. Add the mustard and red pepper, mixing well.

  4. Slowly stir in the salad oil and vinegar until combined.

  5. Fold in the cut celery and season with salt to taste.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 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

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Form a smooth, rich base that gives the dressing body.
Raw egg
Helps bind the mixture and thicken it as it is blended.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.
Salad oil
Provides fat and a silky, creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Slowly stir in the salad oil and vinegar. Adding oil gradually lets the egg yolks and mustard emulsify it into a stable, creamy dressing. Pouring it in too fast can cause it to separate and turn greasy.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, 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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