Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Salad

Salad of boiled chicken and celery mixed with dressing of egg yolks, sugar, salt, mustard, cayenne, sweet cream, vinegar, and butter or olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

  1. Boil the chicken and celery together in a pot.

  2. Stir constantly while adding the egg yolks, sugar, salt, mustard, cayenne pepper, sweet cream, vinegar, and butter or olive oil.

  3. Pour the mixture over the boiled chicken and celery.

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 into a creamy, smooth emulsion as they set gently with heat.
Butter or olive oil
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the dressing's texture.
Chickens
Provides the main protein; boiling makes the meat tender and moist.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks can scramble into lumps if they get too hot or are added too fast. Constant stirring and gradual addition keep the dressing smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

More chicken salad recipes

Dressing 31Sandwich 8with Mayonnaise 6Cream Cheese 5Moulded 5Chinese 4 See all 638 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes