Name: Chicken Salad, or with Veal
Ingredients: 1 boiled chicken or an equal amount of young veal; 2 medium-sized pickles, chopped; 2 tablespoons salad dressing; 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; Celery, to taste; Pepper, to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons butter, softened; 1 teaspoon vinegar

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad, or with Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the boiled chicken or veal into small pieces.

Make the salad

Add the chopped pickles, salad dressing, hard-boiled eggs, and celery.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Mix in the softened butter and vinegar until well combined.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken or young veal: Provides the main body and bulk of the salad.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the mixture.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and tangy, creamy flavor that binds the salad.
Pickles: Contribute acidity and a crisp, sharp bite.
Butter: Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Garlicfits better
Celerythe original

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