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Boiled Turkey

A boiled turkey stuffed with an oyster and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Boiled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Stuff and boil the turkey

  1. Stuff the turkey as for roasting with the oyster dressing.

  2. Dredge a thin cloth with flour, then baste the turkey with the cloth.

  3. Place the turkey in cold water with 1 tablespoon of salt.

  4. Simmer the turkey for 2.5 to 3 hours, skimming while boiling.

Make the oyster sauce

  1. For the oyster sauce, combine 1 cup of the boiling liquid with 1 cup of milk and 8 chopped oysters.

  2. Season the sauce with minced parsley.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with cold milk, then add 1 tablespoon of butter.

  4. Boil the sauce once.

  5. Pour the sauce into a tureen.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Oysters
Give the sauce its distinctive briny flavour.
Milk
Makes the sauce creamy and mellows its flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour mixture. Flour thickens only when it is mixed smoothly into liquid, since dry flour clumps. Stir it into the sauce so it disperses evenly, then boil once so the starch swells and the sauce thickens fully.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, oyster, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, milk):

  1. Sagefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, oyster, bread, butter, pepper, thyme, milk. 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.

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