Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 1 chicken; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; ½ cup table mustard; ⅓ cup vinegar; ⅔ cup sweet oil; 2 heads of celery

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

Prepare

Boil the eggs and chicken until fully cooked.
Peel and chop the eggs and chicken into small pieces.

Mix and serve

In a bowl, mix the chopped eggs, chicken, salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, and sweet oil.
Chop the celery and add it to the mixture.
Toss everything together until well combined.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 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

Eggs: Add body and richness, and their firm texture holds the salad together.
Chicken: Provides the main protein and substance of the salad.
Table mustard: Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the rich oil.
Sweet oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and keeps the salad moist.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild vegetable flavour.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original

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