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Turkey Warmed Over

Turkey or chicken pieces are warmed with butter, served with bread or biscuit slices and a cream-like gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Turkey Warmed Over

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey and bread

  1. In a frying pan, warm the pieces of turkey or chicken with butter.

  2. Place the warmed turkey on a warm platter and surround it with bread or biscuit slices dipped in hot salted water.

  3. Put the platter in a warm oven with the door open.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In the frying pan, add butter, milk, and any leftover gravy; bring to a boil.

  2. Mix in enough flour, wet with cold milk or water, to achieve a cream-like consistency.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and finely chopped dark meat.

  4. Cook the sauce for a few moments, then pour it over the biscuit and turkey.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Turkey or chicken
Provides the main meat, which is warmed gently so it stays moist and tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the warmed meat and the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Flour
Thickens the milk and gravy into a cream-like sauce.
Leftover gravy
Adds savory flavor and depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be mixed in wet with cold liquid so it disperses without lumps. Added dry or to hot liquid, it clumps, and the sauce will not reach a smooth, cream-like texture.

“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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