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Chicken Salad

A salad made with cooked chicken, celery, salt, pepper, and homemade mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 salad

  1. Combine equal amounts of finely chopped cooked chicken and celery in a bowl.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

Make the mayonnaise dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine 1 large bottle of oil with 4 to 5 egg yolks to prepare the mayonnaise dressing.

  2. Stir or beat the mixture rapidly with a wooden paddle, adding the oil slowly until it thickens.

  3. Once thick, add a little vinegar or lemon juice to thin it to the desired consistency.

  4. Season the mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon of mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

  5. Adjust acidity to taste.

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 + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks (in the method)
Emulsify the oil into the dressing, giving it a thick, creamy structure.
Oil (in the method)
Provides the fat that, emulsified with the yolks, makes the dressing rich and thick.
Vinegar or lemon juice (in the method)
Adds acidity that thins the dressing and sharpens its flavour.
Mustard (in the method)
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while beating. Oil must be added gradually so the egg yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast breaks the mixture, leaving a thin, oily dressing that will not thicken.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, 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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