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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, cucumber pickles, hashed cabbage, egg yolks, and a dressing of butter, mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar, and raw egg yolk.

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 the salad

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, celery, cucumber pickles, and hashed cabbage.

  2. In a separate bowl, rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs to a paste.

Make and serve

  1. Add melted butter, mustard, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and the raw egg yolk to the egg paste; mix well.

  2. Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Their crumbled paste gives the dressing body and a rich, smooth texture.
Raw egg yolk
Its proteins and fat emulsify the dressing and help it bind and thicken.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, coating mouthfeel to the dressing.
Mustard
Its emulsifying compounds help hold the dressing together and add sharp flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich yolks and butter.
Boiled chicken
Provides the main protein and substance of the salad.

The step that matters

Adding the dressing just before serving. Acidic and salty dressing draws moisture out of the cabbage and cucumber and softens them, so the salad turns limp if dressed too early.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, cucumber, meat, egg, butter, mustard):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, cucumber, meat, egg, butter, mustard. 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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