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Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped chicken, boiled eggs, celery, lemon juice, butter, mustard, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the chicken finely, both light and dark meat.

  2. Squeeze the juice of two lemons.

  3. Boil eight or ten eggs hard.

  4. Chop the egg whites finely and mash the yolks finely.

Make the salad

  1. Moisten with six teaspoons melted butter and two teaspoons of sweet oil.

  2. Add one tablespoon of mustard, one teaspoon of pepper, one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of sugar, and three teaspoons of cream.

  3. Add six large bunches of celery chopped fine, with sufficient vinegar to moisten the whole.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

375Calories
39 gProtein
21 gFat
7 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 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.

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main bulk and meaty texture of the salad.
Eggs
Mashed yolks enrich the mixture and help bind it together.
Melted butter
Adds moisture and richness that coat the chicken and egg.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and egg.
Lemons
Their juice adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the salad.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps hold the dressing together.

The step that matters

Moistening the whole with vinegar. Add the vinegar gradually, just enough to moisten everything. Too much liquid makes the chicken and celery watery and dilutes the dressing, while too little leaves dry pockets. Mixing thoroughly spreads the fat and acid evenly so each bite is seasoned the same.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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