Skip to main content
Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, egg whites, celery, cabbage, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

  1. Chop the boiled chicken and the egg whites moderately fine.

  2. Add equal amounts of chopped celery and cabbage.

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the egg yolks fine and mix in the butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir in the cider vinegar and pour the mixture over the salad.

  3. Mix thoroughly 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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Provides the main protein bulk of the salad, giving it a tender, meaty texture.
Egg whites
Add body and a firm, mild texture to the salad.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the dressing.

The step that matters

Mash the egg yolks fine and mix in the seasonings. Mashing the yolks fine and blending them with the butter and mustard lets them emulsify into a smooth, evenly seasoned dressing. Coarse lumps leave pockets of unmixed fat and seasoning.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, celery, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper. 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.

More chicken salad recipes

Dressing 31Sandwich 8with Mayonnaise 6Cream Cheese 5Moulded 5Chinese 4 See all 638 →

You might also like

Cabbage DressingCabbage Dressing9 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes