Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 large cooked chickens; 9 hard-boiled egg yolks; ½ cup butter; ½ cup vinegar; 2 large heads of celery; Durkie's salad dressing to taste; chopped cucumber pickles (optional)

Why it works: Celery and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,745 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Shred the cooked chickens into bite-sized pieces.

Mix and season

In a bowl, combine the chicken, egg yolks, and chopped celery.
Add the butter and vinegar, mixing well.
Season with Durkie's salad dressing to taste.
For extra flavor, mix in chopped cucumber pickles if desired.

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 + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Forms the bulk of the salad and gives it its main substance and savory flavor.
Egg yolks: Add richness and a smooth, creamy texture that binds the salad.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more cohesive mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the fats.
Celery: Contributes crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory note.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, butter, vinegar, celery):

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Cucumberthe original

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