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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, egg yolks, mustard, and dressing, garnished with celery leaves, egg rings, pickles, and beetroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

  1. Cut the boiled chicken into small pieces or mince it finely.

  2. Mix the chicken and celery together and let it sit for 1-2 hours.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, break the hard-boiled egg yolk finely with a fork.

  2. Add the raw egg yolk, salt, pepper, and mustard to the bowl and mix well.

  3. Gradually add the salad oil and white wine vinegar, mixing until smooth.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the chicken with the dressing and pile it on a serving dish.

  2. Spread some dressing over the top and garnish with celery leaves, egg rings, sliced pickles, and beetroot.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White meat of chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing the main texture and protein.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly aromatic flavour.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and mustard to form a smooth, creamy dressing.
Salad oil
Adds fat and richness, and helps the dressing hold together as an emulsion.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Mustard
Acts as an emulsifier that helps the oil and vinegar stay combined.

The step that matters

Gradually add the oil and vinegar. Adding the oil slowly while mixing lets it disperse into tiny droplets held by the egg yolks. Adding it all at once can make the dressing split or turn greasy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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