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Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded chicken mixed with gravy, celery, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Pepper and celery 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

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the chicken and giblets in a kettle, dredge with flour, and pour on boiling water.

  2. Cover and cook slowly until the meat is tender and easily twisted with a fork.

  3. Remove the meat from the bones and skin, cutting it into half-inch bits.

Make the salad

  1. Mash the liver and stir it into the gravy.

  2. Combine the gravy with the chicken, add salt and pepper, and mix in the celery.

  3. Cover and refrigerate until cold.

  4. Before serving, pour dressing over the salad.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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.
Flour
Dredging the chicken helps thicken the cooking liquid into gravy.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor that binds the salad together.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until tender. Gentle, slow cooking keeps the meat moist and lets collagen break down so it becomes tender. Boiling hard can toughen the proteins and dry out the chicken.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, 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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