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Chicken Salad

A salad made with boiled chicken, celery, vinegar, eggs, mustard, salt, sugar, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Boil the chickens without salt until cooked through.

  2. Chop both light and dark meat from the chickens.

Make the salad

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped chicken, celery, vinegar, beaten eggs, mustard, salt, sugar, and red pepper.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat until thickened.

  3. Rub the yolks of the hard‑boiled eggs with butter to form a paste.

  4. Mix the yolk paste into the salad.

  5. Cut the whites of the eggs to place 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. 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

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

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 and bulk of the salad.
Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the mixture as they cook gently over low heat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the salad a sharp, tangy flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Celery
Adds crunch and fresh, mild flavour to the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture over low heat until thickened. Beaten eggs can scramble if heated too fast. Gentle, low heat lets the egg proteins set slowly and thicken the mixture smoothly.

Swap the celery

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

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

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