Name: Salad a LA Jardine
Ingredients: 1 pint ground, boiled chicken; 1 cup asparagus tips; 1 cup peas; 1 cup chopped string beans; 1 cup chopped celery; a few pecan kernels; mayonnaise to taste

Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 807 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Combine the ground boiled chicken, asparagus tips, peas, chopped string beans, chopped celery, and pecan kernels in a large bowl, then mix the ingredients carefully.
Pour mayonnaise over the salad and mix gently to combine.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Asparagus + peastop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + beanstop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together292 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together949 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Chicken + asparagustop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together539 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground boiled chicken: Forms the bulk of the salad and supplies its main protein and body.
Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness, binding the salad together with fat and emulsifier.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly sharp flavor.
Peas: Adds sweetness and tender texture to the salad.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, asparagus, peas, beans):

Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
Celerythe original
Cuminabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, asparagus, peas, beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.