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Salad

Tongue and Chicken Salad

A chilled salad of tongue, chicken, egg yolk, celery, mayonnaise, aspic jelly, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 456 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tongue and Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the aspic

  1. Melt the aspic jelly and add the tarragon vinegar.

  2. Rinse several small molds in cold water.

Fill the molds

  1. Flake the yolk of the hard boiled egg and place some at the bottom of each mold.

  2. Cut the chicken and tongue into small pieces, mix with the jelly, season, and fill the molds.

Serve

  1. Chop the celery into small pieces and mix with the mayonnaise sauce.

  2. Once set, turn out the molds onto a dish and place the celery sauce in the center.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + tarragontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together619 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 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

Tongue
Provides the main meat texture and savory flavor of the salad.
Cold chicken
Adds bulk and mild meaty flavor, filling out the set jelly.
Aspic jelly
Sets around the meat and holds the molds together when turned out.
Good mayonnaise sauce
Adds richness and creaminess to the celery as a sauce.
Celery
Contributes crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Once set, turn out the molds onto a dish. Aspic must be fully set before unmolding, or it will tear or slump. Gelatin firms as it cools, so chilling until firm gives clean edges and a stable shape.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, sauce, tarragon, 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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