Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: white meat of cooked chicken; dark meat of cooked chicken (optional); peas

Why it works: Meat and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,449 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

white meat of cooked chicken
dark meat of cooked chicken (optional)
peas

Directions

Cut the white meat of the chicken into small bits, about the size of peas.
Chop the dark meat if 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.

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.

Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,528 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Meat + peastop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together573 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).