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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of diced chicken, celery, and a creamy dressing of egg yolks, oil, vinegar, and capers.

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

Why it works: Capers and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken into small square pieces and remove the skin.

  2. Wash and cut the celery into similar-sized pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and gradually add the salad oil while beating until thick and creamy.

  2. Add the vinegar to the mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a salad bowl, combine the chicken and celery, then pour the dressing over them.

  2. Sprinkle with white pepper, salt, and cayenne; mix thoroughly with a fork.

  3. Arrange the lettuce around the edge of the salad bowl, sprinkle capers on top, and garnish the center with celery tips.

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. Capers + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  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. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Forms the main body of the salad, providing protein and substance.
Celery
Adds a crisp texture that contrasts with the soft chicken and creamy dressing.
Egg yolks
Act as an emulsifier, holding the oil and vinegar together in a thick, creamy dressing.
Salad oil
Supplies fat that gives the dressing richness and a smooth, silky body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the yolks. The oil must be added gradually while beating so the lecithin in the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving a thin, separated dressing instead of a thick, creamy one.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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