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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad made with boiled or roasted chicken, celery or cabbage, eggs, and a dressing of sugar, oil, mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper.

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 the chicken and celery

  1. Mince the chicken meat, removing all fat and skin.

  2. Chop the celery finely and mix it with the chicken.

  3. Set aside while preparing the dressing.

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of the boiled eggs finely, adding salt, pepper, and sugar.

  2. Gradually add the oil or butter, a few drops at a time.

  3. Stir in the mustard.

  4. Whip the raw egg to a froth and add it to the dressing.

  5. Pour in the vinegar slowly while beating the dressing.

Combine and serve

  1. Sprinkle a little dry salt over the chicken and celery, then pour the dressing over all.

  2. Transfer to a salad bowl and garnish with sliced egg white and chopped green pickle.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White meat of boiled or roasted chicken
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and bulk.
Hard boiled eggs
Their yolks are rubbed into a smooth base that thickens and enriches the dressing.
Raw egg
Beaten into the dressing, it helps emulsify and thicken it, giving body to the sauce.
Salad oil or melted butter
Added slowly to the yolks, it forms an emulsion that gives the dressing richness and smoothness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and egg.
Celery or white cabbage
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild flavour to the chicken.

The step that matters

Adding the oil or butter gradually to the yolks. Oil must be added a few drops at a time so it emulsifies into the yolk. Adding it too fast causes the dressing to split and turn greasy and thin.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, sugar, butter, mustard, pepper, 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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