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Salad

Chicken Salad

A chilled chicken salad with celery, egg white, mayonnaise, and garnishes such as gherkins, capers, anchovy fillets, olives, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. In a bowl, mix the shredded chicken, celery, and white of egg.

  2. Stir in the salad oil and vinegar, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Let the mixture stand for one hour.

  4. When ready to serve, stir in the mayonnaise sauce.

Serve

  1. Arrange the salad on a bed of crisp lettuce.

  2. Garnish with gherkins, capers, anchovies, olives, and optionally, yolks of eggs rubbed through a fine sieve.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its main texture and flavour.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and creaminess, binding the salad and keeping it moist.
Hard-boiled egg white
Adds soft, mild body and bulk to the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for one hour. Standing lets the oil, vinegar, and seasoning soak into the chicken and celery, so the salt and acid are evenly distributed rather than sitting on the surface. Add the mayonnaise only at serving so it stays thick and fresh.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, sauce, vinegar, pepper, capers, anchovy. 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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