Name: Celery
Ingredients: 1 hard-boiled egg; Mayonnaise sauce (see page 229); cooked chicken; salad vegetables; lettuce leaves

Why it works: Chicken and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,421 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the cooked chicken into dice.
Cut the salad vegetables into coarse shreds.
Stir the chicken and vegetables into the mayonnaise sauce.
Pile the mixture in the center of a salad bowl.
Garnish with bright leaves of lettuce and the egg cut into quarters.

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.

Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,421 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sauce + lettucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).