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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of boiled chicken, egg whites, celery, cabbage, and a dressing of butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

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. Chop the boiled chicken and the egg whites moderately fine.

  2. Combine the chopped chicken, egg whites, celery, and cabbage in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the egg yolks fine and mix with butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir in the cider vinegar and pour the mixture over the salad.

  3. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for up to three days 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

Chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the salad, with tender texture when chopped moderately fine.
Egg whites
Add bulk and a mild, firm texture that holds the salad together.
Egg yolks
Mashed into the dressing, they make it creamy and help bind the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar and fat.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Mash the egg yolks fine and mix with the dressing ingredients. Mashing the yolks very fine lets them blend smoothly with the butter and mustard, so the dressing becomes creamy rather than lumpy. Stirring the vinegar in afterward keeps its sharpness balanced against the fat and sugar.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, celery, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper. 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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