Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 large boiled chickens; 2 heads of celery, chopped fine; 9 hard-boiled egg yolks; ½ cup melted butter; ½ cup vinegar; ⅓ cup mixed mustard; 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Celery and mustard 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

Prepare

Chop the boiled chickens and celery finely.
Mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs into a paste while warm.

Combine and serve

In a bowl, combine the chicken, celery, mashed egg yolks, melted butter, vinegar, mixed mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt, then mix thoroughly and serve.

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.

Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 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

Boiled chicken: Provides the bulk and main protein of the salad.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Mashed into a paste, they make the salad rich and creamy.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the mixture a smooth, moist texture.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Mixed mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the fat.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Dillfits about as well
Celerythe original

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