Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 boiled chicken, chopped fine; 1 head of cabbage, chopped fine; 1 head of celery, chopped fine; 12 hard boiled eggs, whites chopped, yolks crumbled; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon mustard; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup vinegar

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

Chop the boiled chicken, cabbage, celery, and the whites of the hard boiled eggs finely.

Make the dressing

In a bowl, crumble the yolks and mix in the sugar, mustard, butter, and vinegar.

Combine and serve

Combine all ingredients together and serve.

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.

Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Yolks crumble into the dressing, adding richness and body to the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness and richness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Butter: Adds fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the eggs and butter.

Swap the cabbage

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

Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Cabbagethe original

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