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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of hard-boiled eggs, cooked chicken, celery, cabbage, butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

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

  1. Chop the hard-boiled eggs and chicken.

  2. Combine with chopped celery and cabbage.

  3. Mash the egg yolks finely.

Dress and serve

  1. Mix in butter, sugar, mustard, pepper, salt, and cider vinegar.

  2. Pour the mixture over the salad and mix thoroughly.

  3. If celery is unavailable, substitute with chopped pickled cucumbers or lettuce and celery seed.

  4. This salad can be prepared 2-3 days in advance.

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the main body of the salad, with mashed yolks creating a rich, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the dressing and carrying flavour through the salad.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts through the richness of the eggs and butter.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that complements the eggs and vinegar.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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