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Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, and a dressing made from egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, oil, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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

Make the dressing

  1. Break the yolks of 3 raw eggs in a deep dish and add the mustard. Mix well.

  2. Slowly add the salad oil while stirring continuously.

  3. Mash the 10 hard-boiled egg yolks and mix in the salt, cayenne pepper, and vinegar.

  4. Gently stir the second dressing into the first dressing.

Assemble the salad

  1. Season the cut-up chicken with salt and pepper, then add the chopped celery.

  2. Mix the dressing thoroughly with the chicken and celery, reserving some celery tops for garnish.

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. 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. Mustard + chickentop 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

Raw egg yolks
Emulsify the oil into the mustard, giving the dressing a thick, creamy body.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed into the dressing, they add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Salad oil
Forms the fat base of the emulsified dressing, adding richness and moisture.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps hold the oil and yolks together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich oil and yolks.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and substance of the salad.

The step that matters

Slowly add the salad oil while stirring continuously. Adding oil too fast before the yolks and mustard have emulsified can cause the dressing to split and turn greasy. Adding it slowly in a steady stream lets the egg yolk lecithin bind the oil into a stable, thick emulsion.

Swap the celery

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

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

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