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Chicken Salad

A salad made with chopped chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, and a dressing of mustard, oil, egg, sugar, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

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

  1. Mince the chicken or turkey, removing all fat and skin.

  2. Chop the celery into small pieces.

Make and combine

  1. In a bowl, combine the chicken, celery, and hard-boiled eggs.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, pepper, mustard, salad oil, raw egg, sugar, and vinegar to create the dressing.

  3. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture and toss to combine.

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 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

Chicken or turkey
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Raw egg
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, helping the dressing thicken and cling to the salad.
Salad oil
Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavour and keeping the dressing creamy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and egg.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the dressing to the raw egg mixture. The raw egg must be fully blended into the dressing so it emulsifies evenly with the oil and vinegar. Uneven blending leaves pockets of oil or egg, causing a split or greasy texture.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper, 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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