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Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped chicken and celery dressed with a double‑boiled egg and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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. In a bowl, combine the chopped chicken and chopped celery.

  2. Beat the eggs separately.

Make the dressing

  1. To the yolks, add melted butter, sugar, mustard, vinegar, and salt.

  2. Mix well and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Cook the dressing in a double boiler until thick.

Combine

  1. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture and mix well.

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 + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad and gives it its main body.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the dressing as they cook; beaten whites lighten its texture.
Butter
Melted butter adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing in a double boiler until thick. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Too much heat can curdle them into lumps, so the dressing should be cooked gently and stirred while it thickens.

Swap the celery

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

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

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