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Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped chicken, celery, and a dressing of vinegar, flour, sugar, salt, mustard, oil, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

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

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped chickens and celery.

  2. Rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs into a fine powder and add to the bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar, flour, sugar, salt, mustard, and oil until well combined. Add the cream to the mixture and stir until smooth.

Combine

  1. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture and mix well.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

Cooked chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main texture and protein.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, slightly vegetal crunch against the soft chicken.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Ground to a powder, they thicken and enrich the dressing with a creamy, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of oil and cream.
Flour
Thickens the dressing so it clings to the chicken and celery rather than pooling.
Oil
Contributes fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing until smooth before adding it. Flour needs to be fully dispersed in the liquids, or it forms lumps that stay raw-tasting and grainy. Mixing the vinegar, flour, and oil well first, then adding cream gradually, gives an even emulsion that coats the salad evenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, vinegar, flour, sugar, mustard, cream. 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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