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Dressing for Chicken Salad

A dressing made with egg yolks, sugar, cayenne pepper, mustard, salad oil, and celery vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Dressing for 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 ↓

Dressing for Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Add sugar, cayenne pepper, mustard, salad oil, and celery vinegar; stir well.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Finish and serve

  1. Let the dressing cool before pouring it over the chicken salad.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar and thicken the dressing as it heats.
Salad oil
Adds richness and body, carrying flavor and keeping the dressing smooth.
Celery vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and helps the oil and yolk mixture stay emulsified.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can scramble if they overheat or sit still. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the dressing turns smooth and thick rather than lumpy.

Swap the celery

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

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

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