Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped; 2 cups celery, chopped; ½ cup oil; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Chicken and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,375 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
½ cup oil
mayonnaise dressing

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Combine the chicken and celery in a bowl.
Pour the oil over the mixture and let it marinate for 4 to 8 hours.
When ready to serve, mix in the mayonnaise dressing.

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.

Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, mild vegetal bite against the soft chicken.
Oil: Carries flavor and adds moisture and richness to the chicken and celery.
Mayonnaise dressing: Binds the salad and adds creaminess, fat, and tang.

“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.