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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of boiled chicken, celery, and a dressing of vinegar, sweet oil, mustard, cayenne, salt, egg yolks, and 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

  1. Remove skin and fat from the chickens, then cut the meat into very small pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine the chicken gravy, vinegar, sweet oil, mustard, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg yolks just before removing from heat.

  3. Once cooled, mix in the cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine the chicken and celery in a bowl, then pour the dressing over just before serving.

  2. Garnish with 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing and add richness as they set gently with the heat.
Sweet oil
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the dressing.
Colman's mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil into the dressing.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks just before removing from heat. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the dressing is too hot or boils, the yolks can curdle and turn grainy, so the heat must be removed at the right moment.

Swap the celery

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

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

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