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Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, cucumber pickles, egg whites, and a dressing of mustard, sugar, oil, vinegar.

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

  1. Cut the cooled chicken into small pieces without using a chopping knife.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chicken, celery, cucumber pickles, and egg whites.

Make the dressing

  1. In another bowl, mash the egg yolks into a smooth paste.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mustard, sugar, salad oil, and vinegar to the mashed yolks and mix well.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture and gently mix with a fork just 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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed into a paste, they form a creamy, rich base for the dressing.
Salad oil
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dressing a smooth, silky texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the dressing with the oil.
Celery
Contributes crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and egg.

The step that matters

Mashing the yolks into a smooth paste before adding the liquids. Yolks mashed fully before the oil and vinegar are added blend into an even, creamy dressing. Lumps stay separate and the dressing can split or cling unevenly to the chicken.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cucumber, egg, pepper, mustard, sugar, 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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