Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Boiled Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the turkey
Stuff the turkey as usual.
Place the turkey in a kettle.
Cover it completely with boiling water.
Remove the turkey.
Replace the boiling water with tepid water.
Heat slowly until boiling.
Transfer to the Calorific oven.
When re-heating, add salt and peppercorns.
Cook until tender.
Finish and serve
Place on a platter and spread with butter.
Put in the oven until the butter is melted.
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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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Is the main protein, cooked gently in water until tender.
- Butter
- Melts over the cooked turkey to add richness and moisture to the surface.
The step that matters
Heat slowly until boiling. Bringing tepid water to a boil gradually lets heat penetrate the large bird evenly, so the outside does not overcook before the centre is tender.
“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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