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Salad

Chicken Salad for Ten

A chicken salad with celery, egg yolks, mustard, cream, vinegar, sugar, butter, red pepper, flour, olive oil, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 for Ten

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the chicken until tender, then let it cool.

  2. Cut the chicken meat into small pieces.

  3. Chop the celery into small pieces, equal to the amount of chicken.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, salt, mustard, cream, vinegar, sugar, butter, red pepper, and flour.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. Once cooled, stir in the olive oil and lemon juice.

Assemble

  1. Combine the chicken and celery with the dressing.

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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set during gentle cooking and add richness.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the dressing.
Flour
Helps thicken the cooked dressing so it clings to the chicken and celery.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rich flavor in the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if they get too hot they scramble into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, mustard, cream, vinegar, sugar, 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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