Why it works: Lettuce and celery 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
Remove all skin, bone, and tendons from the chicken and cut it into ½-inch cubes.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Tear the lettuce into small pieces or chop the celery.
Mix equal parts of chicken and lettuce or celery with some mayonnaise dressing.
Arrange the mixture in a shallow salad bowl or entree dish and coat with the remaining mayonnaise.
Garnish with small inner leaves of lettuce or celery tops.
Prepare the chicken, lettuce, and dressing in advance, but mix them just before serving.
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.
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Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,033 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,375 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,421 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lettuce, pepper):
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Celerythe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lettuce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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