Name: Celery and Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped celery; 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped; 2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered; mayonnaise sauce to taste

Why it works: Celery and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,375 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Celery and Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped celery
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
mayonnaise sauce to taste

Directions

Prepare

Chop the celery finely.
Cut the cooked chicken into small pieces, reserving the legs and some dark meat.

Assemble

In a bowl, mix the chopped celery and chicken.
Add mayonnaise sauce to taste and mix well.
Garnish with quartered hard-boiled eggs.

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.

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 + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Celery + eggtop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,334 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

Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly vegetal crunch to the salad.
Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and substantial bulk of the salad.
Mayonnaise sauce: Adds fat and moisture, binding the chicken and celery together into a creamy salad.