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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of chopped chicken, celery, egg yolks, and a dressing of mustard, oil, sugar, vinegar, and seasonings.

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 and celery

  1. Remove all fat, gristle, and skin from the chicken and mince it finely.

  2. Cut celery into ½-inch pieces. Mix celery with chicken. Set aside in a cool place.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub yolks of hard-boiled eggs to a fine powder. Mix in salt, pepper, and sugar.

  2. Add salad oil gradually while grinding mixture. Incorporate mustard into mixture.

  3. Whip raw egg until frothy. Mix raw egg into dressing. Pour vinegar gradually. Whip dressing until well combined.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Transfer salad to bowl. Garnish with whites of hard-boiled eggs cut into rings and sprigs of celery tops.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Cooked chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main protein texture.
Egg yolks
Grind into a powder and emulsify with oil to form a smooth, rich dressing.
Beaten raw egg
Adds body and helps bind the dressing as it is whipped.
Salad oil
Provides fat and richness, emulsified into the dressing for a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and eggs.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild flavor to the salad.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually while grinding the yolks. Oil must be added slowly so it emulsifies into the yolk mixture. Adding it too fast causes the dressing to separate and turn greasy instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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