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Chicken Salad

A salad made from shredded chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, mustard, vinegar, oil or butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 dressing

  1. In another bowl, beat the yolks of 2 raw eggs for 10 minutes.

  2. Add mustard, vinegar, and oil or melted butter gradually, beating constantly until thick.

  3. Boil 4 eggs hard, then place in cold water for 10 minutes.

  4. In a bowl, mix the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with a little cold water, pepper, cayenne, sugar, and vinegar.

Combine and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the meat of 2 chickens and chopped celery.

  2. Pour this mixture into the chicken and celery mixture, sprinkling with salt and pepper.

  3. Mix lightly with a silver fork and garnish with the whites of the hard-boiled eggs.

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. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main texture and substance.
Eggs
Raw yolks are beaten into the dressing, and hard-boiled yolks and whites add body and richness.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp flavour that balances the richness of the egg and oil dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and sharpens the overall flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savoury crunch to the salad.

The step that matters

Adding oil or melted butter to the egg yolks. Oil must be added slowly while beating constantly so the yolks emulsify into a thick dressing; adding it too fast causes the mixture to separate and stay runny.

Swap the celery

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

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

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