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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, and a mayonnaise dressing made with eggs, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad base

  1. In a large bowl, combine the white meat of boiled chickens and chopped celery. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and set aside in a cool place.

Make the dressing

  1. For the mayonnaise, rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs until fine. Add 1 teaspoon salt and slowly mix in the olive oil, drop by drop.

  2. Stir vigorously, then add mustard, white pepper, and sugar. Whip the egg white to froth and fold it into the dressing.

  3. Gradually add vinegar, stirring constantly until well combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Gently mix the salad with the dressing using two forks. Line a salad bowl with lettuce leaves.

  2. Garnish the top with chopped hard-boiled egg whites and yolks, and add olives and capers for decoration.

  3. For a richer salad, fold in whipped cream just before serving.

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.

  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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Their fat and emulsifiers bind the olive oil into a smooth, stable dressing.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the dressing.
Egg white
Whipped to froth, it adds lightness and airiness to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.
White meat of boiled chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing protein and substance.
Whipped cream
Adds softness and extra richness when folded in before serving.

The step that matters

Adding the oil drop by drop. Oil added too quickly to the yolks cannot be absorbed, so the emulsion breaks and the dressing turns greasy and separated. Slow addition lets the yolk lecithin surround each droplet and keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, celery, egg, olive, 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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