Name: Devilled Turkey
Ingredients: legs and wings of turkey, jointed; 1 tablespoon pepper vinegar; 1 tablespoon prepared mustard; 1 tablespoon celery sauce; 1 tablespoon acid fruit jelly; salt, to taste; pepper, to taste; pounded cracker, for garnish

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 ↓

Devilled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Place the jointed legs and wings on a grill and broil slowly.
In a bowl, mix together the pepper vinegar, mustard, celery sauce, acid fruit jelly, salt, and pepper to make the sauce.
Once broiled, lay the turkey on a hot dish, pour the sauce over the turkey, and sprinkle pounded cracker on 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.

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).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey legs and wings: Provide the main meat that is broiled until cooked through and browned.
Acid fruit jelly: Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Prepared mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that carries through the sauce.
Pepper vinegar: Adds acidity and heat to the sauce.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, vinegar, mustard, sauce. 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.