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Thanksgiving Dinner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,047 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the turkey and ham a day before Thanksgiving.

  2. Thoroughly wash and scrape the ham.

  3. Place the ham in a large kettle and cover with cold water.

  4. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until cooked.

  5. Boil the sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes until tender.

  6. Heat the French peas according to package instructions.

  7. Prepare the cranberry sauce by cooking cranberries with sugar until they burst.

  8. Make the salad with celery and dressing.

  9. Serve the dinner with all prepared dishes.

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. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  2. Sweet potato + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together162 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sweet potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, ham, potato, peas, celery, sugar, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, ham, potato, peas, celery, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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