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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, and mayonnaise, garnished with lettuce and celery tops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Prepare the chicken by drawing and singeing it, then place it in a kettle with enough boiling water to prevent burning.

  2. Add the sliced onion, bay leaf, cloves, and mace; cover and cook slowly until the chicken is tender.

  3. Let the chicken cool completely, preferably overnight; then remove the skin and cut the meat into dice-sized pieces.

Prepare the salad

  1. Wash and cut the celery into ½-inch pieces, then dry and set aside in a cool place.

  2. Prepare the mayonnaise dressing; for each pint of chicken, use 2/3 pint of celery and 1 cup of mayonnaise.

  3. Optionally, stir in 1 cup of whipped cream into the mayonnaise for a lighter dressing.

Assemble and serve

  1. When ready to serve, mix the chicken and celery, season lightly with salt and pepper, then combine with the mayonnaise.

  2. Garnish the salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves and celery tops, then heap the salad inside and 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 + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

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

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body of the salad; slow simmering in water keeps the meat tender and moist.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and moisture that coat the chicken and celery and carry the seasoning.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly sharp contrast to the soft chicken.
Whipped cream
Optionally lightens the dressing with air and added fat for a softer, creamier texture.

The step that matters

Cook the chicken slowly until tender. Gentle simmering in water keeps the meat moist and tender; a hard boil toughens muscle proteins and dries the meat, so the salad turns chewy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, clove, mace, celery, lettuce, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, clove, mace, celery, lettuce, 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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