Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 large chickens; 8 hard-boiled eggs; 1 cup cider vinegar; 1 tablespoon English mustard; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon melted butter or 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 pint chopped celery

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chickens until very tender, then remove all bones and tough skin.
Chop the chicken meat finely.

Make the dressing

Peel the hard-boiled eggs while hot and mash the yolks in a bowl with 1 cup of cider vinegar.
Add another cup of vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, black pepper, and melted butter or olive oil to the yolks.

Combine and season

In a large bowl, combine the chopped chicken and celery with the egg mixture.
Chop the egg whites finely and add them if desired.
Adjust seasoning with more mustard and sugar if needed.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 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).
Cider + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main body and meaty texture of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs: Yolks mashed into the dressing add richness and body that bind the salad.
Cider vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the eggs and fat.
Melted butter or olive oil: Adds fat that gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, vegetal crunch against the soft salad.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, cider, vinegar, sugar, pepper, butter):

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Potatofits less well
Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, cider, vinegar, sugar, pepper, butter. 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.