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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, onion, and mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Lemon and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the chicken in boiling water with onion, bay leaf, cloves, salt, and mace.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is tender.

  3. Remove the chicken, discard the skin and bones, and cut the meat into cubes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the chicken with two-thirds as much chopped celery.

  2. Dust with salt and pepper, then combine mayonnaise and whipped cream to taste.

  3. Pour the dressing over the salad and serve on lettuce leaves.

  4. Garnish with capers and celery leaves.

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. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein; simmering until tender gives the meat its soft texture.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the salad and coating the chicken and celery.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a smoother, richer mouthfeel to the dressing.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly vegetal crunch against the soft chicken.

The step that matters

Simmering the chicken until tender. Boiling hard toughens the muscle proteins, making the meat stringy and dry. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer after the initial cook lets the connective tissue soften slowly, so the cubed meat stays tender and juicy.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, clove, lemon, celery, 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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