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Chicken Salad

Chicken salad made with boiled chicken, celery, cabbage, hard boiled eggs, mustard, pepper, vinegar, butter, yolks, olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 the chicken and vegetables

  1. Boil the chickens for one hour.

  2. Cut the chickens into small pieces, avoiding chopping.

  3. Chop the celery and cabbage to match the amount of chicken.

Make the dressing

  1. Chop the egg whites and mash the yolks with mustard, black pepper, and red pepper.

  2. Scald the vinegar, then gradually stir in the butter and beaten yolks until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and cool, then mix with the other ingredients and olive oil.

Combine and rest

  1. Combine everything several hours 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main body of the salad, becoming tender after boiling.
Raw egg yolks
Thicken the butter and vinegar mixture into a rich, emulsified dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and body to the thickened dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the fat.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a mild, creamy texture to the salad.
Made mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the butter and beaten yolks. Adding butter and yolks slowly while the vinegar is hot lets the yolk proteins thicken and emulsify the mixture. Adding them too fast can cause the dressing to split or curdle.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, meat, egg, mustard, pepper, 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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