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Chicken Salad

A salad of minced chicken mixed with a dressing of egg yolks, milk, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt, garnished with celery leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

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

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks and milk.

  2. Stir briskly over medium heat until warm.

  3. Add the vinegar.

  4. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Once cooled, mix in mustard, pepper, and salt to taste.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the dressing with the minced chicken and chopped celery.

  2. Garnish the dish with celery leaves before serving.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with gentle heat, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the yolks.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savory crunch.

The step that matters

Continue stirring until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the heat is too high or stirring stops, they can scramble into lumps. Stirring steadily over medium heat keeps the custard smooth and thickened.

Swap the celery

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

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

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