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Chicken Salad in Cream

A chilled chicken salad made with celery, carrot, onion, gelatin, cream, and diced chicken.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Salad in Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Boil the celery, carrot, and onion in 2 cups of chicken stock, with the fat previously removed.

Make the gelatin base

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in 1 cup of cold chicken stock, then pour in 1 cup of hot stock and stir until dissolved.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Beat with an egg beater until light.

Assemble and set

  1. Fold in the whipped cream and diced chicken.

  2. Pour into molds and refrigerate until set.

  3. Slice nearly an inch thick and garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs and sprigs of parsley.

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.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable salad that holds its shape when chilled.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded in.
Chicken stock
Provides the main liquid and savory chicken flavor that the gelatin sets.
Cold diced chicken
Supplies the substantial meaty body and bite of the salad.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before beating and folding in the cream. If the gelatin mixture is still warm, it can melt the whipped cream and deflate it, and it may not set evenly. Cooling until it just begins to thicken keeps the cream airy and the set firm.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, carrot, chicken, gelatin, onion, cream):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, carrot, chicken, gelatin, onion, 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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