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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of finely chopped chicken and celery in a mustard, pepper, sugar, butter, and whipped cream dressing.

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

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix mustard, pepper, sugar, and melted butter.

  2. Cook the mixture as a custard and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, stir in the whipped cream.

Combine the salad

  1. Add the finely cut chicken meat and the chopped celery.

  2. Mix gently to combine.

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

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Melted butter
Adds richness and body to the custard base, giving the dressing a smooth, fatty mouthfeel.
Whipped cream
Lightens the cooled custard and adds moisture and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the sharpness of the mustard in the dressing.
Mustard
Provides sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Chicken meat
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and substance.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly vegetal bite to the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture as a custard and let it cool. Heating the egg-free mixture gently thickens it into a stable base; if it is overheated or not fully cooled before adding the whipped cream, the cream can deflate or the dressing can turn thin and separate.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, pepper, sugar, butter, cream, meat, chicken):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, pepper, sugar, butter, cream, meat, 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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