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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, lettuce, egg yolks, mustard, cayenne pepper, salt, sweet oil, vinegar, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and gristle from the boiled chicken and chop it finely.

  2. Cut the lettuce into quarters and soak it in water with ice to crisp.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt with a fork.

  2. Gradually stir in the sweet oil and a little vinegar until well combined.

  3. Mix half of the dressing with the chopped chicken.

Assemble

  1. Place the chicken mixture in the center of a flat dish.

  2. Dry the lettuce and arrange it neatly around the chicken.

  3. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the lettuce.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar into a thick, creamy dressing that holds the salad together.
Sweet oil
Provides fat and richness, and with the egg yolks forms the body of the dressing.
Mixed mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury bite.
Lettuce
Adds crisp texture and fresh contrast to the rich chicken and dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the sweet oil. Adding the oil slowly while stirring lets the egg yolk emulsify it into a smooth dressing. Pouring it in too fast can cause the mixture to split and look greasy.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits about as well
  3. Lettucethe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

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