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Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of hard-boiled eggs, shredded cabbage, and shredded turkey or chicken, seasoned with salt, mustard seed, pepper, sugar, celery seed, vinegar, and butter.

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

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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

  1. Chop the hard-boiled eggs and place them in a large bowl.

  2. Add salt, mustard seed, black pepper, sugar, and celery seed to the eggs.

  3. Mix in the shredded cabbage and shredded turkey or chicken.

  4. Pour in the vinegar and melted butter (or fat from the boiled fowl) and mix well.

  5. Serve chilled.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide body and richness, binding the salad with their soft, creamy texture.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk, holding its texture against the dressing.
Turkey or chicken
Forms the protein base, giving the salad its main substance and meaty texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness and richness.
Butter or fowl fat
Adds fat for moisture and a rounded, savoury flavour that carries the seasonings.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, pepper, sugar, celery, turkey, 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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