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Salad

A Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded chicken, celery, hard‑boiled egg yolks, and a dressing of mustard, oil, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

A Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

  1. Scrape and wash the celery, reserving the green leaves.

  2. Shred the white part of the celery into thin strips and arrange it in a dish to form a nest.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs into a smooth paste.

  2. Add the salad oil or melted butter, mustard, and sugar to the egg yolks, mixing well.

  3. Gradually stir in the vinegar until combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mince the white meat of the chicken and place it in the nest.

  2. Garnish the edge of the nest with the reserved celery leaves.

  3. Pour the dressing over the chicken just before serving to prevent discoloration.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed into a smooth paste, they bind and thicken the dressing and add richness.
Salad oil or melted butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing smooth and moist and carries flavour.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat and yolks.
Celery
Provides crisp texture and fresh flavour as the nest that holds the chicken.

The step that matters

Dressing just before serving. Pouring the dressing on the chicken just before serving keeps the chicken from discoloring, since acid and time in contact with the dressing and air can change its colour and texture.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, egg, butter, mustard, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, butter, mustard, sugar, vinegar. 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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