Name: Chicken Celery
Ingredients: 2 chickens; 9 hard-boiled egg yolks; 2 heads of celery, chopped; sweet oil (to taste); mustard (to taste); cayenne (to taste); ¼ teaspoon salt

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 Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the chickens until cooked, then let them cool.
Remove the meat from the bones and chop it finely.
Chop the hard-boiled egg yolks and celery.

Mix and season

In a bowl, combine the chicken, egg yolks, celery, sweet oil, mustard, cayenne, and salt. Mix everything well together.

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.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,210 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens: Provide the main body of the salad, with cooked meat that is chopped for texture.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture that binds the chopped ingredients.
Celery: Adds a crisp, fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken and yolks.
Sweet oil: Adds fat and moisture, carrying the flavours and keeping the mixture from drying out.