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Chicken Salad

A salad of minced chicken, celery, lettuce, egg yolks, mustard, salt, oil, sugar, vinegar, garnished with boiled egg whites.

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

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the tender meat from the boiled or roasted chickens.

  2. Chop the celery and lettuce, then mix with the chicken.

Dress and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed egg yolks, mustard, salt, salad oil, sugar, and vinegar to make the dressing.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture in a salad bowl.

  3. Garnish with rings cut from the boiled egg whites.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Chicken meat
Provides the main protein bulk and the substantial, chewy texture of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp, crunchy texture that contrasts with the soft minced chicken.
Egg yolks
Mashed into the dressing, they add richness and help bind the oil and vinegar smoothly.
English mustard
Helps emulsify the dressing and adds a sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat of the oil and yolks.
Salad oil
Adds fat and smooth mouthfeel, carrying flavour and keeping the chicken moist.

Swap the lettuce

The recipe marks lettuce as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, celery, egg, mustard, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, celery, egg, 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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