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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad made with compressed chicken, celery, vinegar, oil, salt, and mayonnaise or cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Chicken and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,375 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the compressed chicken and cut it into slices, then dice.

  2. Add the chopped celery to the chicken.

Marinate and season

  1. Marinate the mixture with vinegar and oil.

  2. Adjust the ratio to 1 tablespoon of vinegar for every 3 tablespoons of oil if needed.

  3. Season with salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, pour over the mayonnaise or cream dressing.

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. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

  3. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Compressed chicken
Forms the main body and protein of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the oil.
Oil
Adds fat and moisture, coating the chicken and giving a richer mouthfeel.
Mayonnaise or cream dressing
Adds creaminess and moisture to bind the salad together.

The step that matters

Adjusting the vinegar and oil ratio. Vinegar and oil must be balanced by taste because acid sharpens flavor while fat softens it. Too much vinegar makes the salad sour, and too little leaves it greasy and flat.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, vinegar, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, vinegar, cream. 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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