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To Stew a Turkey Brown

A stew of a whole turkey seasoned, stuffed, and cooked in veal gravy with oysters, marrow, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Stew a Turkey Brown

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Draw the craw out of the turkey.

  2. Remove the entrails, keeping the turkey whole.

  3. Carefully remove all bones from the body.

  4. Leave the rump, legs, and wings intact.

  5. Mix breadcrumbs, chopped oysters, beef marrow, lemon peel, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  6. Stuff the turkey with the mixture.

  7. Sew the turkey up.

  8. Lard the turkey with bacon.

  9. Half roast the turkey.

Stew and finish the gravy

  1. Place the turkey in a pan with veal gravy.

  2. Cover the pan.

  3. Stew for 1 hour.

  4. Add mushroom catsup, anchovy, lemon slices, cayenne pepper, and sweet herbs.

  5. Cover the pan.

  6. Stew for another 30 minutes.

  7. Remove the turkey.

  8. Skim fat from the gravy.

  9. Strain the gravy.

  10. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  11. Let the gravy boil for a few minutes.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Turkey + beeftop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together248 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Turkey + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body that is stuffed, larded and stewed until tender.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing mixture.
Beef marrow
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and give the stuffing body and texture.
Flour and butter
Thicken the gravy to a smooth, coating consistency.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with butter and then boiled for a few minutes so its starch swells fully and the gravy thickens without a raw, pasty taste or lumps.

“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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