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Chicken Salad, Rich

A creamy chicken salad with celery, mustard, lemon, and cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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, Rich

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the chicken until tender, then let it cool and remove the meat in small pieces.

  2. Soak the celery in a little water to make it crisp, then drain and dry thoroughly.

Make the dressing

  1. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolk with a fork until thick. Add the mustard.

  2. Gradually mix in the oil, adding the first two teaspoons in drops and beating well between each addition.

  3. For every sixth teaspoon of oil, add one teaspoon of lemon juice, repeating until you have used ½ cup of oil and the lemon juice.

  4. Season with salt and red pepper. Stir in the cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the chicken and celery.

  2. Pour half the dressing over the salad. Drizzle the rest of the dressing on top.

  3. Garnish as desired.

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.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 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

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and lemon juice into a thick, stable dressing.
Oil
Provides fat and richness, forming the body of the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and helps keep the emulsion stable.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury flavour.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture once soaked and dried.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually to the yolk. Oil added too fast before the yolk has emulsified will separate and the dressing will break. Adding it in drops at first, while beating well, lets the yolk lecithin bind the oil into a smooth, thick emulsion.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, egg, lemon, pepper, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, egg, lemon, pepper, 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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