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 ↓
A Salad
10 peopleIngredients
Directions
Cook the chicken
Boil a hen with a pod of red pepper in the pot, clipping the pod carefully.
Boil a chicken until tender and cut it into small squares.
Boil a medium fowl until tender, then remove all skins, bones and gristle.
Boil two large fowls until the flesh slips from the bones, then cut or grind the chicken fine.
Boil chicken until tender and cut it into small pieces.
Make the egg dressing
Drop the eggs, boiled hard, into cold water.
Mash the yolks carefully and mix them with one-third as much mustard.
Smooth the yolk and mustard mixture with good vinegar.
Cream the butter well and add it to the yolks and mustard.
Add a little cayenne pepper and salt.
Mix all carefully and add vinegar to taste.
Mash the yolks of nine hard-boiled eggs to a smooth paste.
Mix the yolks with vinegar, mustard, pepper and salt, and mix thoroughly.
Cover and set the dressing away until sufficiently mixed.
Combine and serve
Chop the egg whites fine and add them to the chicken and egg mixture.
If celery cannot be had, use cabbage with celery seed, one teacup soaked in vinegar overnight.
Cut one and one-half stalks of celery into squares and add them with one pound of English walnuts or other nuts.
Mix with mayonnaise dressing.
Cut up the meat, add a little salt and the white part of a bunch of celery.
Toss the ingredients until light, then set away in a cool place until the dressing is made.
Use mayonnaise dressing.
Cut the celery in squares, mix with the chicken, cover and set away.
Five minutes before serving, pour the dressing over the chicken and celery and mix well.
Add sugar to taste, nuts, and the whites of nine eggs chopped fine.
Add nearly as much cut celery, six hard-boiled eggs with whites chopped well, and the yolks mashed and mixed with two tablespoons of French mustard.
Add pickle, salt and red pepper to taste, and mix with mayonnaise dressing.
Nuts may be added if preferred.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Walnut | 1 walnut half (4g) | 26 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Cayenne | 1 tsp (1.8g) | 6 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Mustard | 1 tsp (5g) yellow | 3 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Salad | not in our table | 0 |
| Meat | not in our table | 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.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
-
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,449 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks bind with mustard and butter to form a smooth, rich dressing.
- Mayonnaise
- Emulsified base that moistens the chicken and celery and carries the flavour.
- Celery
- Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
- Walnuts
- Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the yolk dressing.
- Mustard
- Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the yolks and fat.
The step that matters
Mash the yolks smooth before adding vinegar and butter. Yolks left lumpy stay grainy in the dressing; working them into a smooth paste first lets the mustard and fat emulsify evenly, while adding vinegar gradually keeps the dressing from splitting.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, walnut, vinegar, mustard, meat, egg, chicken):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, walnut, vinegar, mustard, meat, egg, chicken. 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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