Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Cook a chicken or fowl until tender in boiling water enough to cover, with a tablespoonful of salt, six peppercorns, one clove, a small bay leaf, one onion, several stalks of celery, or two or three of the roots. Remove from liquid and when cold cut the meat in half-inch pieces. (Save the liquid and bones and add to your soup stock. Cut the celery in half-inch pieces using half as much celery as meat. One-half cup of walnuts or olives cut in small pieces and added to two cups of the chicken and one of celery is an improvement.
198 ROCKY MOUNTAIN COOK BOOK.
Marinate the chicken and celery one hour before serving, drain off any marinate that is left in the dish, mix the nuts or olives or both, with the celery and chicken. Arrange in a salad dish, first mixing a part of the mayonnaise dressing with the salad. Cover the top with mayonnaise, garnish with celery leaves, olives, lettuce or hard-boiled eggs sliced. In the summer, when celery is out of season, cucumber cut in cubes can be used in place of it. Garnish with lettuce or watercress.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Walnut | 1 walnut half (4g) | 26 |
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Walnut + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,771 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Walnut + chickentop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together469 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, chicken, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, chicken, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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