Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: one bunch of celery; two tablespoonfuls of melted butter; one tablespoonful of mustard; half cup of vinegar; one cold boiled chicken; six hard boiled eggs; mustard; vinegar

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

Take the meat of one cold boiled chicken, one bunch of celery, and the whites of six hard-boiled eggs.
Chop all ingredients moderately fine.
Mash the yolks.

Dress and mix

Add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoonful of mustard, and a half cup of vinegar, then mix well together.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

357Calories

38 gProtein

21 gFat

2 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Celery + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Egg yolks mashed into the dressing add richness and help bind the salad.
Butter: Melted butter coats the chopped ingredients and adds richness and mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the butter and sugar.
Mustard: Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the dressing.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mustard, vinegar, chicken, egg. 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.