Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 pound butter; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teacup olive oil; 3 cold cooked chickens or 1 teacup vinegar; 1 medium-sized turkey; 4 tablespoons mixed mustard; 2 or 3 bunches celery; 1/2 cup strong vinegar; Coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Mustard and celery 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

Beat the eggs well and combine with all ingredients except the chicken and celery.
Cook the mixture in a kettle, stirring constantly until it thickens to a mush-like consistency.
Once cooled, add 1/2 cup strong vinegar.
Chop the chicken and celery together, season with salt, and mix with the dressing.
Reserve some dressing to cover the top.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together688 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, olive, chicken, turkey, mustard, vinegar):

Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, olive, chicken, turkey, mustard, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.