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Chicken Salad

A cold salad of minced chicken mixed with celery, vinegar, butter, egg yolks, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, combine vinegar and butter. Heat until hot.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of 4 eggs, stirring constantly until thick to prevent curdling.

  3. Once thickened, let the mixture cool completely.

  4. Stir in 1 cup of cream or milk, salt, sugar, dry mustard, and pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix well and pour over the chicken just before serving. Stir to combine.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a creamy, rich body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Cream or milk
Thins the cooked dressing and adds creaminess and moisture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild flavour to the salad.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken only gently, and if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the proteins scramble and curdle. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily until it thickens.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, vinegar, butter, egg, cream, sugar, mustard. 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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