Skip to main content
Main

Poultry Dressing

A bread-based dressing with eggs, butter, almonds, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Poultry Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the dry bread into a bowl.

  2. Add the finely rolled crackers and beaten eggs.

Season and bind

  1. Stir in the mace, chopped parsley, and butter.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Mix in the chopped almonds.

  4. Add enough milk and water to make the dressing soft.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry bread
Forms the bulk of the dressing and absorbs liquid to give it body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a nutty texture against the soft crumb.
Milk and water
Add moisture so the dressing stays soft rather than dry.

The step that matters

Add enough milk and water to make the dressing soft. Dry bread and crackers absorb liquid unevenly, so adding liquid gradually until the mixture is soft keeps it moist without making it soggy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, parsley, butter, pepper, almond, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, parsley, butter, pepper, almond, milk. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesAlmond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes