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To haJJj a Turkey

A dish of turkey pieces boiled and served in thickened gravy with egg yolk and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To haJJj a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove the legs and cut the thighs into two pieces.

  2. Cut the pinions and breast into large pieces.

  3. Remove the skin to avoid greasy gravy.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the turkey in a pot with gravy, lemon juice, and mace.

  2. Boil the turkey for 6-7 minutes, do not overcook.

  3. Transfer the turkey to a serving dish.

  4. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  5. Mix the egg yolks with cream and add to the gravy.

  6. Heat the gravy without boiling, then drain and pour over the turkey.

  7. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter 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
Provides the main meat, which is cooked gently so it stays tender.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the turkey.
Butter
Adds richness and helps thicken the gravy with flour.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the gravy, adding body and smoothness.
Cream
Adds richness and softens the flavor of the gravy.

The step that matters

Heat the gravy without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the gravy boils after they are added, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, lemon, flour, butter, egg, cream, parsley):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, lemon, flour, butter, egg, cream, parsley. 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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