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Chicken Salad No. 1

A salad made with cooked chicken, celery, egg yolks, olive oil, mustard, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and celery

  1. Cut the white meat of the cooked chickens into coarse bits.

  2. Add coarsely chopped celery, using a little more chicken than celery.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks well.

  2. Slowly add the olive oil, drop by drop, while beating continuously.

  3. Mix in the mustard, sugar, salt, Cayenne pepper, and lemon juice.

Finish and serve

  1. For a richer salad, stir in the cream or milk just before serving.

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

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

  3. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the olive oil into the dressing, giving it a thick, creamy body.
Olive oil
Adds fat and smooth richness to the emulsified dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the salad and balances the richness of the dressing.
Prepared mustard
Helps stabilize the emulsion and adds sharp flavor.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness to the salad when included.

The step that matters

Slowly add the olive oil, drop by drop, while beating continuously. Oil must be dispersed into the yolks gradually so the droplets are surrounded by egg lecithin and proteins. Adding it too fast breaks the mixture, leaving the dressing oily and separated instead of thick and smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, egg, olive, mustard, sugar, pepper. 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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