Name: To Bone a Bird, Fowl or Turkey
Ingredients: 1 bird (fowl or turkey); coarse sea salt; black pepper; force meat (for stuffing); flour (for dredging); slices of salt pork; 6 tablespoons drippings; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 cup cream or white stock

Why it works: Turkey and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 830 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Bone a Bird, Fowl or Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bird

Remove the head, wash, and singe the bird.
Remove the tendons from the legs.
Loosen the skin around the ends of the drumsticks.
Use a small pointed knife to cut the skin down the back.
Scrape the meat away from the bone, starting at the neck.
Loosen the flesh from the shoulder blade and follow the bone to the wing joint.
Leave the first bone in the wing and remove the flesh from the breast.
Be careful not to cut through the skin at the ridge.
Remove the flesh around the second joint and the drumstick, turning the flesh inside out.
Repeat on the other side.

Stuff and truss

Lay the bird skin side down on a board.
Place the flesh back in place, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stuff with force meat.
Sew the skin together, skewer, and tie the legs and wings in a trussed position.

Roast and make gravy

Dredge the bird with flour, salt, and pepper, and cover with slices of salt pork.
Roast for 25 minutes per pound, basting frequently.
Make gravy with the drippings, flour, and cream or stock, and season to taste.

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.

Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together830 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,208 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Dredging coats the skin and, with the drippings, thickens the gravy.
Drippings: Fat from roasting carries flavour and forms the base of the gravy.
Cream or white stock: Liquid that loosens the gravy and adds richness and body.
Salt pork: Slices laid over the bird baste it with fat and add savoury flavour as they cook.

The step that matters

Keep the skin intact at the ridge. Cutting through the skin while removing the flesh leaves holes that let stuffing and juices escape, and the bird dries out in the oven.

“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.

Pork Cake107 recipes

Roast Pork82 recipes

Turkey Soup71 recipes

Meat Croquettes52 recipes

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To Bone a Bird, Fowl or Turkey