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Chicken Salad

A chicken salad with celery, eggs, mustard, vinegar, oil, butter, and sweet cream.

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. Season the chicken while cooking.

  2. Chop the chicken and celery by hand.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  2. Slowly beat in the oil with the egg mixture.

  3. In a new tin or earthen dish, mix all ingredients except the cream.

  4. Cook the mixture on the stove until thick like pound cake.

  5. Once cooled, stir in the cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the chicken and celery one hour 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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, and thicken the dressing when cooked.
Vegetable oil
Adds fat and richness, and blends with the egg yolks to form a smooth emulsion.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil and cream.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and a smooth, mellow texture to the finished dressing.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps the oil and egg mixture stay blended.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg mixture on the stove. Heat sets the egg proteins, so the mixture thickens gradually. If it gets too hot or is not stirred, the eggs can scramble or curdle instead of becoming smooth and thick.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, mustard, butter, vinegar, cream. 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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