Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 boiled chicken, tender; 2 tablespoons mustard; 3 hard-boiled eggs; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 3 tablespoons melted butter; 1 tablespoon black pepper; vinegar, to moisten; 3 heads of celery, chopped

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chicken until tender.
Chop the chicken meat.
Chop the egg whites and mix with the chicken.

Make the dressing

Rub the egg yolks with the mustard until fine.
Add salt, melted butter, black pepper, and vinegar to the mixture.
Chop the celery and mix everything together.
Serve chilled.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main body and protein of the salad, becoming tender from boiling.
Egg yolks: Rubbed smooth with mustard, they add richness and a creamy texture to the mixture.
Mustard: Adds sharpness and flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter and yolks.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the salad a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and moistens the mixture.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, slightly vegetal flavour against the soft chicken and eggs.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Dillfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mustard, egg, butter, pepper, 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.