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Turkey, Cold, to Pry

Fried joints of cold turkey served with a ham‑infused 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 Pry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the joints

  1. Divide the remains of cold turkey into neat joints for serving.

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

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

Make the gravy

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

  2. Add parsley, celery, pepper, and coarse sea salt; simmer gently 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

Beaten egg
Binds the bread-crumb coating to the turkey joints so it stays on during frying.
Seasoned bread-crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating on the turkey joints when fried.
Flour
Dredged over the browned ham to thicken the gravy as it cooks.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the gravy base.
Butter
Browns the ham gently and adds richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the coated joints. Frying in hot fat sets the egg and crumb coating quickly so it browns and adheres. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy and can fall off the joints.

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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