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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of diced chicken, celery, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken.

  2. Let the chicken cool completely.

  3. Remove the skin and bones.

  4. Dice the meat.

  5. Place the diced chicken in a bowl.

  6. Mix with vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir well.

  7. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Prepare the celery

  1. Wash the celery in cold water.

  2. Cut the celery into ½ inch pieces.

  3. Refrigerate the celery with ice on top until ready to serve.

  4. Drain the celery.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the celery with the chicken.

  2. Add the mayonnaise dressing. Combine well.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad's texture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the salad and carries its flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and seasons the chicken.

The step that matters

Let the chicken cool completely. Adding dressing to warm chicken can make the mayonnaise separate and turn oily, and warm meat absorbs seasoning unevenly. Cooling fully keeps the dressing emulsified and the salad creamy.

Swap the celery

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

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

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