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Pecan Stuffing for Turkey

A savory stuffing made with bread crumbs, rice, bacon, herbs, celery, lemon peel, pecans, and butter, used to fill a turkey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Pecan Stuffing for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, cold boiled rice, chopped bacon, sweet herbs, celery, lemon peel, pecans, pepper, and salt.

  2. Mix well with your hands, binding the mixture with the egg, melted butter, and milk.

Cook and stuff

  1. Heat suet or lard in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the stuffing mixture to the skillet and fry slightly, turning constantly to prevent burning.

  3. Cook until heated through but not browned.

  4. Transfer to a bowl and use to stuff the turkey.

  5. For best results, let the stuffed turkey rest for several hours before roasting.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing and soak up the butter and milk for a soft body.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when stuffed and cooked.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor that carries through the stuffing.
Pecans
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor against the soft crumbs.
Cold boiled rice
Adds body and a tender texture that lightens the stuffing.
Celery
Adds moisture and a fresh, crisp vegetal note.

The step that matters

Cook until heated through but not browned. The stuffing is fried only briefly so the egg and crumbs stay set and moist. Overcooking dries the crumbs and can scorch the fat, while undercooking leaves the binder raw.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, rice, celery, lemon, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, rice, celery, lemon, pepper, egg, butter. 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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