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Salad

Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of cooked chicken, celery, mayonnaise, whipped cream, lettuce, capers, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Lettuce and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Chill the cooked chicken on ice.

  2. Cut the white celery into pieces, using two-thirds the amount of chicken.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

Dress and serve

  1. Mix mayonnaise with whipped cream to taste.

  2. Pour the mixture over the salad.

  3. Serve on lettuce leaves and garnish with celery leaves.

  4. Sprinkle capers on top.

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. Lettuce + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  4. Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Forms the main body of the salad and provides its protein-based texture.
White celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Mayonnaise
Provides fat and creaminess that binds the salad and adds richness.
Whipped cream
Lightens the dressing and adds a softer, airier creaminess.

The step that matters

Chill the cooked chicken on ice. Chilling the chicken quickly keeps it cold and firm before dressing, so the mayonnaise and cream stay stable and do not become greasy or runny.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, pepper, cream, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, pepper, cream, 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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