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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad made from boiled chicken, celery, butter, mustard, salt, sugar, egg yolks, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 and celery

  1. Boil the chickens until tender.

  2. Chop the boiled chickens with the celery.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter and mustard until smooth.

  2. Add the salt, sugar, and lightly beaten egg yolks, stirring to a cream.

  3. Warm the vinegar.

  4. Stir a little into the mixture to soften it.

  5. Gradually stir the remaining hot vinegar into the mixture until it thickens.

Combine and serve

  1. Once cooled, pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks emulsify with the butter and vinegar, thickening the dressing into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, mellow body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and helps the egg yolks thicken when heated.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps bind the butter and egg into a smooth emulsion.
Chickens
Provide the main protein and moist meat that forms the body of the salad.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the hot vinegar into the mixture. Adding hot vinegar slowly lets the egg yolks warm gradually. Too fast and they scramble, while slow, steady stirring lets the dressing thicken smoothly.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

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