Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 cold cooked chicken; 1 cup finely chopped celery; 1 cup mayonnaise; 1 head of lettuce; 2 hard-boiled eggs

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

Remove the skin from the cold cooked chicken and dice it.

Make the salad

Mix the chicken with the finely chopped celery and mayonnaise.
Add some torn lettuce and mix lightly.

Serve

Serve in a salad bowl and decorate with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

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

Cold cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and moisture that bind the chicken and celery together.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a mild, fresh crunch against the soft chicken.
Lettuce: Adds fresh leafy texture and a light, cool contrast to the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft texture as a garnish-style topping.