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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, and a dressing of olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, sweet cream, vinegar, and lemon.

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 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. Shred the white meat of the chickens and chop the celery.

  2. In a bowl, mash the hard-boiled egg yolks until smooth.

Make the dressing

  1. Gradually mix in the olive oil, mustard, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and sugar.

  2. Add sweet cream until the mixture reaches a batter-like consistency.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the dressing with the chicken and celery just before serving.

  2. Moisten with sharp vinegar and add lemon juice if desired.

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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks mashed with oil form a rich, creamy base that binds the salad.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the dressing a smooth texture.
Prepared mustard
Contributes sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil into the yolk mixture.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the dressing to a spreadable consistency.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich dressing and balances its fat.
Sugar
Adds a small amount of sweetness that rounds out the sharp and spiced flavours.

The step that matters

Adding the sweet cream. Cream should be added gradually until the dressing reaches a batter-like consistency. Adding too much at once makes the emulsion thin and runny, so the salad loses its body and clings poorly to the chicken and celery.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, egg, olive, mustard, pepper, sugar. 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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