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Chicken Salad

A salad made from cooked chicken, celery, eggs, and a dressing of butter, mustard, and 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 the chicken

  1. Steam or boil the cleaned chickens until tender.

  2. Cut the meat into small pieces and mix dark and light meat.

Combine the salad

  1. Combine the chicken with the chopped celery in a deep dish.

  2. Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs and the smooth potato if using.

Make the dressing and finish

  1. In a bowl, beat the softened butter, pepper, salt, and mustard together.

  2. Thoroughly beat the raw eggs, then pour them into the mixture while stirring.

  3. Mix in the vinegar or sour orange juice until well combined.

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. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the salad.
Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs add texture; raw eggs, when beaten in, thicken and bind the dressing.
Butter or salad oil
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Vinegar or sour orange juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.
Celery
Contributes crisp texture and a fresh, mild vegetal flavor.

The step that matters

Pouring the raw eggs into the dressing while stirring. Raw eggs thicken when heated, not when simply mixed in, so they must be beaten thoroughly and blended in smoothly. Adding them without constant stirring can leave streaks or lumps in the dressing.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, egg, butter, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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