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Chicken Salad

A salad of chicken, celery, hard‑boiled egg yolks, mustard, salt, oil, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. Cut the white meat of the chicken into small bits, and the dark meat if desired.

  2. Chop the celery finely.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, rub the yolks of the hard boiled eggs smooth.

  2. Add the mustard, coarse sea salt, oil, and vinegar to the yolks and mix well.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the chicken and celery in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture, adding a little cream.

  3. Serve immediately after adding the dressing.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolks
Rubbed smooth, they bind the dressing and give it a rich, creamy body.
Oil
Adds fat and moisture, helping the dressing stay smooth and coat the chicken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the yolks and oil into the dressing.
White meat of chickens
Forms the main body of the salad, providing lean texture and substance.

The step that matters

Serve immediately after adding the dressing. Vinegar and the moisture in the dressing soften the celery and chicken over time, so the salad loses its crisp texture if it sits too long.

Swap the celery

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

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

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