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Chicken Salad

A salad of shredded chicken and celery dressed with a mustard‑olive oil sauce.

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 yolks with a silver spoon.

Make the dressing

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

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

Assemble 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 are mashed into the dressing, giving it richness and body.
Olive oil
Fat that emulsifies with the yolks to make a smooth, creamy dressing.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and loosens the dressing to a batter-like consistency.
White meat of cooked chickens
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing the main texture and protein.
Celery
Adds crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich dressing and balances its fat.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in the olive oil. Adding oil slowly to the mashed yolks lets it emulsify into a smooth, stable dressing; adding it all at once can cause it to separate and turn greasy.

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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