Name: To Bone a Turkey or Fowl—miss Acton’s
Ingredients: 1 turkey or fowl; forcemeat (optional); livers of 2-3 fowls (optional); parboiled tongue (optional); fine sausage meat (optional); veal forcemeat (optional); thin slices of bacon (optional)

Why it works: Liver and veal match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

To Bone a Turkey or Fowl—miss Acton’s

Ingredients

Directions

Cut through the skin down the center of the back.
Carefully raise the flesh on either side with a sharp knife until you reach the wing and thigh sockets.
Detach the wings and thighs before removing the entire body from the flesh.
Remove the neckbones and merrythought.
Fill the legs and wings with forcemeat and the body with livers, tongue, sausage meat, or bacon for flavor.
Sew up and truss the bird as usual.

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.

Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together392 recipes

Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together190 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Turkey + vealtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Meat + vealtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,890 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).