Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled chicken, chopped; 2 cups celery, chopped; salad dressing to taste

Why it works: Chicken and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,375 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled chicken, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
salad dressing to taste

Directions

Combine the chopped chicken and celery in a bowl.
Pour salad dressing over the mixture and toss to combine.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the soft chicken.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture, richness and flavour that coats the chicken and celery.

“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.