Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: white meat of a chicken (boiled, roasted, or fricasseed); white tender celery; salad dressing; green pickles (small cucumber pickles); white of egg; pickled beets (optional)

Why it works: Celery and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,745 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

white meat of a chicken (boiled, roasted, or fricasseed)
white tender celery
salad dressing
green pickles (small cucumber pickles)
white of egg
pickled beets (optional)

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cut the chicken into small pieces or mince it finely.
Chop the celery into small pieces.
Mix the chicken and celery together and let it sit for 1-2 hours.
Add the salad dressing and mix well.
Transfer the mixture to a dish and shape it into an oval.
Spread some dressing over the outside.
Garnish with delicate celery leaves, sliced white of egg, and thin slices of green pickles.
Optionally, add sliced pickled beets cut into diamonds or stars.

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 + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Meat + celerytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,880 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Meat + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).