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Salad

Lettuce Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded cold chicken, lettuce, hard‑boiled eggs, beet, and a boiled egg yolk dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lettuce Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Mince or shred the cold chickens into small threads.

  2. Mix in the grated smoked tongue or cold ham.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the beaten egg yolks, sugar, cayenne, mustard, vinegar, and salad oil.

  2. Stir the mixture well and bring to a boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Let the dressing cool, then pour it over the chicken in the salad.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the cut lettuce in a bowl and heap the chicken mixture in the center.

  2. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and place them in cold water to prevent discoloration.

  3. Cut each egg into four large pieces and arrange them around the chicken in a slanting direction.

  4. Cut the red beet into small cones and arrange them outside the circle of eggs.

  5. Serve the salad immediately for the best flavor.

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.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 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

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it body and a smooth, creamy texture.
Salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the dressing a silky, emulsified richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the rich yolks and oil.
Cold chickens
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad, shredded into fine threads.
Lettuce
Forms the crisp base that the chicken and dressing rest upon.

The step that matters

Boil the dressing while stirring constantly. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if overheated or left still. Constant stirring over heat keeps the dressing smooth and lets the yolks thicken evenly.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, egg, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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