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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, lettuce, celery, and a dressing of vinegar, butter, salt, eggs, cream, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and vegetables

  1. Boil the chickens until they fall apart.

  2. Tear the chicken into small pieces.

  3. Chop the lettuce and celery.

  4. Mix the chopped lettuce and celery with the chicken.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, butter, and salt until boiling.

  2. Beat the eggs. Mix in the cream or milk and mustard.

  3. Add the boiling vinegar mixture to the egg mixture. Stir the mixture.

  4. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture while warm.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the dressing.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, savory note that complements the eggs and dairy.
Chicken
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and substance.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling vinegar mixture to the eggs. If the hot liquid is poured in quickly or the eggs are not whisked as it goes, they can scramble into lumps. Adding it slowly while beating keeps the dressing smooth and thickened.

Swap the celery

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

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

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