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Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, hard‑boiled egg yolks, mustard, salt, oil, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. Cut the white meat of the chicken into small bits.

  2. Chop the celery finely.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of hard-boiled eggs smooth in a bowl.

  2. Add mustard, coarse sea salt, oil, and vinegar to the egg yolks and mix well.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the chicken and celery in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over it.

  3. Add a little cream to the mixture.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Their fat and emulsifying lecithin help bind the oil and vinegar into a smooth, creamy dressing.
Oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the dressing a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Mustard
Its emulsifying compounds help stabilize the dressing and add a sharp, pungent flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the salad to a softer, creamier texture.

The step that matters

Mixing the dressing into the egg yolks. Adding the oil and vinegar gradually while mixing lets the yolk emulsify them; adding everything at once can leave the dressing separated and greasy.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, egg, mustard, 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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