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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped chicken, celery, eggs, and a dressing of mustard, cream, butter, salt, and vinegar.

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. Boil, bone, and chop the chickens.

Dress and serve

  1. Mix equal quantities of chicken and celery with part of the dressing.

  2. Before serving, pour the remaining dressing over the salad.

  3. Garnish with sliced boiled eggs and celery leaves.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the salad and gives it substance and bite.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the soft chicken.
Eggs
Beaten eggs add richness and body to the dressing.
Butter
Melted butter adds fat, richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and smoothness, loosening the dressing so it coats the chicken evenly.

The step that matters

Before serving, pour the remaining dressing over the salad.. Holding back part of the dressing keeps the celery crisp and stops the salad from becoming watery or soggy while it sits. Adding the rest just before serving keeps the texture fresh.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

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