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Deviled Turkey

A roasted turkey leg seasoned with pepper, butter, and salt, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Deviled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the legs from the turkey and place them in a dish.

  2. Make deep cuts in the legs.

  3. Sprinkle the legs generously with black pepper and butter, and lightly with salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the legs until hot.

  2. Serve each person a small piece of the deviled turkey leg.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey leg
The main meat; deep cuts let heat and seasoning reach further into the thick flesh.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor across the surface and helps it brown under the broiler.
Black pepper
Provides a sharp, pungent aroma and bite that defines the deviled seasoning.

The step that matters

Broil the legs until hot. Broiling applies intense direct heat, so the surface can char before the thick meat near the bone is fully cooked. Watch closely and check that the thickest part is hot.

“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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