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 ↓
Lobster, Chicken or Veal Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the cooked chicken finely and season with salt and pepper.
Add the chopped celery, lobster, beetroot, and egg white.
In a bowl, crush the egg yolk with salt, pepper, mustard, brown sugar, and olive oil or melted butter.
Mix in the vinegar and sour or sweet cream until well combined.
Combine the dressing with the chicken mixture and mix well.
Garnish with parsley or salad greens before serving.
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.
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.
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Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Beetroot + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together484 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + beetroottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together652 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the beetroot
The recipe marks beetroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, celery, lobster, egg, mustard, sugar):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Horseradishbetter flavor fit
- Beetrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, celery, lobster, egg, mustard, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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