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Braised Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed and braised with pork, vegetables, herbs, and stock, then served with gravy and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Braised Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Cover the turkey with slices of pork and tie it with cord to keep its shape.

  2. Place 4 slices of pork in a braising pan and add the stuffed turkey on top.

  3. Surround the turkey with giblets, onions, cloves, carrots, parsnip, bay leaves, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  4. Almost cover with stock, cover tightly, and simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. If serving hot, brown in the oven or use a braising pan that can hold hot coals.

  2. Remove vegetables and boil down the gravy rapidly, skimming off fat.

  3. Garnish with boiled carrot and turnip cut into fancy shapes or fried small sausages.

  4. Strain part of the gravy, stir in a spoonful of brown thickening, and pour over the turkey.

Serve cold in jelly

  1. If serving cold, let the turkey sit in the gravy for an hour, then strain the liquid.

  2. Boil the liquid down to two-thirds its original quantity, free from fat, and clear with egg white.

  3. Brush two coats of the jelly over the turkey and let the rest cool and set.

  4. Once set, cut the jelly into stars or strips and use the trimmings.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish; slow braising turns its tough connective tissue tender.
Pork
Lays fat over the turkey, adding moisture and rich flavour as it renders during braising.
Stock
Braising liquid that keeps the turkey moist and forms the base of the gravy.
Onions
Break down during long simmering, adding sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Carrots
Soften during braising, contributing sweetness and body to the gravy.
Egg white (in the method)
Clears the reduced liquid by binding impurities so the jelly looks clear.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, covered. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the braising liquid below a hard boil, so the tough collagen in the turkey converts to gelatin slowly without drying or toughening the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork, clove, carrot, parsnip, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork, clove, carrot, parsnip, pepper. 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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