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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, eggs, vinegar, butter, mustard, 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

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until tender.

  2. Skin and chop the chicken finely.

  3. Chop the celery to match the quantity of chicken.

Make the dressing

  1. Heat the vinegar in a pot and add a large piece of butter.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs and pour them into the vinegar and butter mixture.

  3. Add red pepper and mustard to the mixture.

  4. Combine the cream and beaten egg whites in a bowl, then pour over the chicken.

  5. Season the chicken and celery with salt and pepper, mixing well.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the vinegar and butter mixture into a creamy dressing, and whites add lightness.
Butter
Melted into the hot vinegar, it adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tang and balances the fat.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma that complement the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing over the chicken while mixing well. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently; if the vinegar mixture is too hot or added too fast, the eggs can scramble. Mixing evenly spreads the dressing and seasoning through the chicken and celery.

Swap the celery

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

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

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