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Chicken Salad

A salad of diced chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, and a dressing of eggs, mustard, vinegar, butter, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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

Cook the chicken

  1. Cook the chickens in salted water until tender.

  2. Let them cool, then cut into small pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, beat the eggs with mustard, black pepper, sugar, and salt.

  2. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the heating vinegar, stirring until it thickens.

Assemble and serve

  1. Add diced celery and sliced hard-boiled eggs to the chicken, then mix well.

  2. Once cooled, pour the dressing over the salad just before serving.

  3. Optionally, add a little lemon juice to whiten the dressing and garnish with white celery tips.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they set when heated, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the rich eggs and butter in the dressing.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the dressing for a smoother texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the dressing's flavour and mouthfeel.
Celery
Adds crunch and fresh, mild flavour that contrasts with the tender chicken.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture into the hot vinegar slowly, stirring constantly. Adding the eggs too fast or without stirring can scramble them into lumps instead of a smooth, thickened dressing. Gentle heat and constant stirring let the egg proteins set evenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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