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Turkey, Cold, to Fry

Fried pieces of cold turkey served with a ham‑floured gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turkey, Cold, to Fry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Divide the cold turkey into neat serving joints.

  2. Dip each joint into the beaten egg, then coat with seasoned bread-crumbs.

  3. Fry the coated turkey joints in hot fat until lightly browned.

Make the gravy

  1. For the gravy, place the bones and trimmings in a saucepan and cover with stock or water.

  2. Add parsley, celery, pepper, and coarse sea salt, then simmer for an hour.

  3. Strain and skim the liquid.

  4. Finely mince the ham and brown it gently in butter.

  5. Dredge flour over the ham and mix well.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  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. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked again by frying until golden.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the bread-crumbs stick to the turkey joints.
Seasoned bread-crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating when fried in hot fat.
Bones and trimmings from turkey
Release flavour and body into the stock as they simmer.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the gravy base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the browned ham and butter.

The step that matters

Frying the coated turkey joints. Fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it crisps, and the turkey heats unevenly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, egg, bread, parsley, pepper, ham, 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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