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Boned Turkey

A turkey stuffed with forcemeat, boiled, cooled, and served cold with aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove the legs and wings from the turkey at the sockets.

  2. Cut close to the breast bone and remove the back bone, gizzard, and entrails.

  3. Bone the legs and wings halfway and chop off the rest.

  4. Tuck the meat of the legs and wings into the turkey body.

  5. Wash the turkey in cold water and dry it with a cloth.

  6. Spread the turkey out with the skin side down on a table.

Stuff and boil

  1. Cover with forcemeat, draw the sides together, sew with twine, and place in a buttered pudding cloth.

  2. Boil in salted broth or water for 2 to 3 hours, depending on size.

Press and serve

  1. Let it cool in the broth, then press between two dishes with a weight on top.

  2. Remove from the cloth, trim, and wipe off grease with a hot, damp napkin.

  3. Brush with melted butter two or three times and keep cold.

  4. Slice thinly and serve cold, garnished with aspic jelly.

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. Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together830 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main meat, which is boned, stuffed, rolled and sliced for serving.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the forcemeat moist during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish when brushed on the cold turkey.
White bread crumbs
Absorb fat and liquid in the forcemeat, giving it body and a soft texture.
Raw eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together and sets firm when cooked.

The step that matters

Cooling and pressing in the broth. Letting the rolled turkey cool under weight lets the meat and forcemeat set into a compact shape, so thin slices hold together cleanly when served cold.

“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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