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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled or roasted chicken, celery, egg yolks, mustard, cayenne, salt, sweet oil, vinegar, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and celery

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of the fowls, cutting it into pieces no larger than 1 inch.

  2. Chop the white part of the celery into 1‑inch pieces and mix with the chicken. Cover and set aside.

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the yolks of the hard‑boiled eggs and mix with the dry mustard and just enough water to form a smooth paste.

  2. Place the mixture in a shallow dish, add cayenne pepper and salt, and gradually mix in the sweet oil with a wooden fork until smooth.

  3. Once smooth, add the vinegar in the same manner, stirring until well combined. Cover and refrigerate.

Assemble and serve

  1. Before serving, break the leaves from the lettuce stalk and add to the chicken and celery mixture.

  2. Ensure the dressing is well mixed, then pour it over the salad and combine thoroughly with a wooden fork and spoon.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar into a smooth, thick dressing.
Sweet oil
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the dressing.
Dry mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds sharp, pungent flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the rich oil.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh contrast to the tender chicken.

The step that matters

Adding the oil gradually to the yolk paste. Oil added too fast to egg yolk and mustard will not emulsify and the dressing separates. Adding it slowly while stirring lets the yolk lecithin coat the oil droplets, giving a smooth, stable dressing.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, pepper, vinegar, lettuce. 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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