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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, and a dressing of egg yolks, sugar, mustard, vinegar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

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 the chicken

  1. Boil the chickens until well done.

  2. Once cold, cut the flesh into small bits.

  3. Finely chop the celery.

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, combine egg yolks, sugar, mustard, red pepper, salt, melted butter, and vinegar.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens, then let it cool.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream once the mixture is cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery.

  2. Serve on lettuce leaves.

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.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and bind it into a smooth custard.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and adds a soft, airy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Melted butter
Adds fat that gives the dressing a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharp vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk mixture in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating scrambles them into lumps. Gentle, indirect heat in a double boiler lets the custard thicken smoothly and evenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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