Skip to main content
Main

Turkey Hash

A simple dish of shredded turkey simmered with water, seasoned, and thickened with optional stuffing or flour, served with dry toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Turkey Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the leftover turkey into shreds or small pieces.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the turkey and water; cover and simmer gently for a few minutes.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with stuffing or flour mixed with butter.

  2. Add more milk or water if the gravy is too thick.

  3. Garnish with points of dry toast before serving.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover turkey
Provides the main protein and body of the hash.
Stuffing
Thickens the gravy as it absorbs liquid and starch.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when mixed with butter, giving it body.
Rich cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and helps bind the flour into the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with stuffing or flour mixed with butter. Flour must be cooked with the fat and liquid long enough to lose its raw taste and thicken evenly. Adding it lumpy or too quickly can leave clumps, so stir steadily while the gravy simmers.

“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.

You might also like

Turkey SoupTurkey Soup71 recipesTurkey StuffingTurkey Stuffing26 recipesTurkey DressingTurkey Dressing24 recipesTurkey PattiesTurkey Patties12 recipes