Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 cooked chicken, chopped fine; 1 head of cabbage, chopped fine; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; 2 teaspoons mustard; ½ cup butter; 1 pint vinegar; 5 hard boiled eggs, chopped fine

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the cooked chicken and cabbage finely.
In a large bowl, combine the chicken, cabbage, salt, pepper, mustard, butter, vinegar, and chopped hard boiled eggs. Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Cabbage: Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up to the dressing.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture throughout the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the salad and balances the butter.
Butter: Adds fat and richness that helps bind the salad together.

Swap the cabbage

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Cabbagethe original

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