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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, eggs, mustard, oil, vinegar, and mayonnaise, garnished with egg whites, capers, and celery sprigs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Mustard and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, mix mashed egg yolks, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  2. Gradually add oil to the yolk mixture until smooth, then stir in vinegar.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine chicken and celery in a bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, and toss gently with a fork.

  3. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with mayonnaise dressing, egg whites, and capers.

  4. Garnish with fresh celery sprigs around the dish and in the center.

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. Mustard + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Mashed yolks emulsify with oil to form a smooth, thick dressing.
Oil
Adds fat and richness, and is emulsified into the yolks for a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy flavour.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly savoury crunch.

The step that matters

Gradually add oil to the yolk mixture until smooth. Adding oil slowly lets the lecithin in the egg yolks coat the droplets and form a stable emulsion. Adding it too fast can cause the dressing to break and separate.

Swap the celery

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

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

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