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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, egg whites, celery, cabbage, and a dressing of butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Chop the boiled chicken and the whites of the hard boiled eggs moderately fine.

  2. Combine the chopped chicken, egg whites, celery, and cabbage in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the yolks of the eggs.

  2. Mix the yolks with butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, and salt, then stir in the cider vinegar.

Assemble

  1. Pour the mixture over the salad.

  2. Mix thoroughly to combine all ingredients.

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the salad.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks mash into a creamy binder while the chopped whites add texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the yolk dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts the richness.
Mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that complements the eggs and vinegar.

The step that matters

Mashing and mixing the yolks into the dressing. Yolks must be mashed fully smooth with the butter before the vinegar goes in, otherwise lumps form and the dressing will not coat the chicken, celery and cabbage evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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