Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 1 cup celery, chopped; salad dressing, to taste; paprika, to taste; lettuce, for garnish; hard boiled eggs, for garnish; red beets, for garnish

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chicken until tender.
Let it cool, then remove fat, gristle, and skin.
Cut the meat into small dice.

Assemble and serve

Chop the celery into small pieces.
Mix the chicken and celery well and set in a cool place.
Add salad dressing and a dash of paprika if desired.
Garnish the dish with lettuce, hard boiled eggs, or red beets.

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.

Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,033 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,421 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lettuce + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad, with tender meat held together by the dressing.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and richness, binding the chicken and celery and seasoning the salad.