Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 quart cold roasted or broiled chicken, diced; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 tablespoon oil; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 pint white celery, cut into small pieces

Why it works: Pepper and celery 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

Ingredients

1 quart cold roasted or broiled chicken, diced
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 pint white celery, cut into small pieces

Directions

Marinate the chicken

Combine the chicken, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper in an earthen bowl.
Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Prepare the celery

Wash and cut the celery.
Chill the celery on ice until serving.

Assemble and serve

Mix the celery with the chicken and half of the salad dressing.
Transfer the mixture to a salad bowl.
Pour the remaining dressing over it.
Garnish with white leaves of celery.

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Vinegar + celerytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main body and protein of the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the chicken and dressing.
Oil: Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the chicken moist.
White celery: Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild flavor to the salad.