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Chicken Salad

A salad of boiled chicken, celery, egg whites, yolks, olive oil, vinegar, and spices.

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 pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the raw egg yolks.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil, starting with 1 teaspoon, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

  3. Add the mashed egg yolks, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and vinegar to the dressing.

Combine and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, celery, and chopped egg whites.

  2. Stir the dressing into the chicken mixture until well combined.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  3. Celery + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg yolks
Emulsify the olive oil into a thick, creamy dressing that holds the salad together.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, silky texture.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed into the dressing, they add body, richness and a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Chicken breasts
Provide the main protein and bulk of the salad, with a tender, moist texture.

The step that matters

Slowly add the olive oil to the beaten yolks. Oil must be added gradually while mixing so the yolk lecithin can emulsify it. Adding it too fast makes the dressing separate and turn oily instead of creamy.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, olive, pepper, 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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