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Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, eggs, mustard, and seasonings, finished with sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Season the chicken while cooking.

  2. Chop the chicken and celery.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, then slowly mix in the oil.

  2. Combine all ingredients except the cream in an earthenware or new tin dish and place on the stove.

  3. Cook until thick like pound cake.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, stir in the cream and pour over the chicken and celery one hour before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Forms the main body of the salad and supplies most of its bulk.
Eggs
Egg proteins set and thicken as they heat, giving the dressing its body.
Vegetable oil
Adds fat and richness, and emulsifies with the egg to make the dressing smooth.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing a sharp, tangy flavour.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a mild sweetness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and helps bind the oil into the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until thick. Egg proteins set and thicken as they heat. Cooking gently and watching for the pound-cake texture prevents overheating, which can curdle the eggs into lumps.

Swap the celery

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

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

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