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Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken and celery dressed with a creamy mustard vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 the chicken and dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped chicken and celery.

  2. In another bowl, rub the yolks to a fine powder.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and sugar to the yolk mixture.

  4. Slowly mix in the salad oil and melted butter, grinding well.

  5. Add the mustard to the dressing.

  6. Let the mixture stand.

  7. Beat the raw egg to a froth.

  8. Mix the frothy egg into the dressing.

  9. Pour in the vinegar gradually.

  10. Whip the dressing.

Combine and serve

  1. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken and celery.

  2. Toss lightly.

  3. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery.

  4. Mix well.

  5. Add the whipped cream just before serving.

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. Celery + peppertop 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. Chicken + mustardtop 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

Egg yolks
Their emulsifying lecithin helps bind the oil, butter and vinegar into a smooth, stable dressing.
Salad oil and melted butter
They supply fat that gives the dressing richness and a silky, coating texture.
Raw egg
Beaten to a froth and mixed in, it adds body and helps the dressing emulsify and thicken.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the fats.
Whipped cream
Folded in just before serving, it lightens the salad and adds a soft, airy creaminess.
Mustard
Its natural emulsifiers help stabilise the dressing and add a sharp, tangy note.

The step that matters

Pour the vinegar gradually. Adding the acid slowly while whipping lets the oil and egg emulsion absorb it evenly. Adding it all at once can break the dressing into separated oil and liquid.

Swap the celery

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

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

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