Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 pint lettuce or celery; ½ cup French Dressing; 1 scant pint cooked chicken, finely chopped; 1 cup grated bread crumbs; 2/3 cup Mustard Dressing or Mayonnaise

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 pint lettuce or celery
½ cup French Dressing
1 scant pint cooked chicken, finely chopped
1 cup grated bread crumbs
2/3 cup Mustard Dressing or Mayonnaise

Directions

Mix the chopped chicken, bread crumbs, and French Dressing together.
When ready to serve, add the Mustard Dressing and the lettuce or celery.

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.

Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Bread + mustardtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Grated bread crumbs: Absorb the dressing and add body to the chicken mixture.
French dressing: Moistens the chicken and bread crumbs and adds tang and flavor.
Mustard dressing or mayonnaise: Adds creaminess, richness, and moisture to the finished salad.
Lettuce or celery: Adds crisp texture and freshness to the salad.