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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad made with chopped chicken, celery, hard‑boiled eggs, vinegar, flour, sugar, salt, mustard, oil, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard 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

  1. Chop the chicken and celery coarsely.

  2. Hard-boil the eggs, then remove the yolks and rub them into a fine powder.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the powdered yolks with salt, mustard, and oil until well combined.

  2. Add cream to the mixture, then stir in the vinegar.

Combine

  1. Combine the chicken, celery, and the dressing mixture.

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.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main texture and savoury flavour.
Celery
Adds crisp, fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
Eggs
Powdered yolks thicken and enrich the dressing, giving it body and a creamy mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances its richness.
Cream
Adds fat that makes the dressing smoother and rounder in texture.

The step that matters

Rubbing the yolks into a fine powder. Yolks must be pushed through to a very fine, lump-free powder so they blend smoothly into the oil and cream. Lumps leave a grainy dressing that does not coat the chicken and celery evenly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, vinegar, flour, sugar, mustard, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, vinegar, flour, sugar, mustard, cream. 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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