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
Make the dressing
Beat the eggs until smooth and add the vinegar, butter or olive oil, mustard, sugar, and black pepper.
Place the mixture in a kettle over medium heat, stirring constantly, and cook until it thickens to a mush.
Once cooled, stir in the remaining vinegar.
Assemble and serve
Chop the chicken and celery to your desired size and sprinkle with salt.
Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, mixing well just before serving, reserving some dressing to pour over the top.
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.
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Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + chickentop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Cooked egg yolks and whites thicken the dressing into a creamy, sliceable mush.
- Butter or olive oil
- Adds fat that gives the dressing a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the fat.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Cooking the egg mixture until it thickens. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the eggs from scrambling or sticking. The egg proteins set gradually and thicken the dressing, so heat that is too high can curdle it.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, butter, mustard, sugar, pepper, chicken):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Dillfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, butter, mustard, sugar, pepper, 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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