Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: white meat of a chicken (boiled, roasted, or fricasseed); white tender celery; salad dressing; delicate leaves of celery for garnish; hard-boiled egg (white only) cut in rings for garnish; small cucumber pickles cut in thin lengthwise slices for garnish; pickled beets (optional) cut in slices and then in diamonds or stars for garnish

Why it works: Celery and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,745 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

white meat of a chicken (boiled, roasted, or fricasseed)
white tender celery
salad dressing
delicate leaves of celery for garnish
hard-boiled egg (white only) cut in rings for garnish
small cucumber pickles cut in thin lengthwise slices for garnish
pickled beets (optional) cut in slices and then in diamonds or stars for garnish

Directions

Cut the chicken into small pieces or mince it finely.
Cut the same quantity or more of celery into small pieces.
Mix the chicken and celery together and let it sit for 1-2 hours.
Add the salad dressing and mix everything together.
Transfer the mixture to a dish and shape it into an oval.
Spread some dressing over the outside.
Garnish with delicate celery leaves around the edge, rings of hard-boiled egg white, and thin slices of cucumber pickles.
Optionally, add pickled beets in slices and then cut into diamonds or stars, alternating with the green pickles and egg.

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.

Celery + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Meat + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,880 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + cucumbertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Meat + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).