Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 Devil Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook the turkey
Sprinkle coarse sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper over the gizzard, rump, and drumsticks of the turkey.
Boil the seasoned parts of the turkey until cooked through.
Make the sauce and serve
In a saucepan, combine the turkey gravy, mixed mustard, butter, flour, and lemon juice to make the sauce.
Serve the boiled turkey parts hot with the sauce.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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 gravy
- Provides the liquid base and savory flavor for the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smoother mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
- Mixed mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent heat that defines the deviled flavor.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the seasoned parts until cooked through. Boiling heats the dark meat gently and evenly, but the parts must reach a fully cooked temperature throughout, since undercooked poultry carries food-safety risk. Lean on the thickest pieces, such as the drumsticks, to judge doneness.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pepper, butter, flour, lemon):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, butter, flour, lemon. 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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