Name: Chicken and Celery Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup raw celery, thinly sliced; 1 cup cold boiled chicken, sliced; mayonnaise or cold ravigote sauce

Why it works: Celery and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,375 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken and Celery Salad

Ingredients

1 cup raw celery, thinly sliced
1 cup cold boiled chicken, sliced
mayonnaise or cold ravigote sauce

Directions

Mix the chicken and celery together with mayonnaise or cold ravigote sauce.
Press the mixture into a mold and turn it out.
Decorate the top as desired.

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.

Celery + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,360 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery: Adds a crisp, fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken.
Cold boiled chicken: Forms the main body of the salad and gives it substance.
Mayonnaise: Adds moisture and richness, binding the chicken and celery together.