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Braised Turkey

Braised turkey stuffed with pork slices and vegetables, simmered in stock.

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.

  2. Tie the turkey with cord to keep its shape.

  3. Place 4 slices of pork in a braising pan.

  4. Stuff the turkey.

  5. Place the stuffed turkey in the pan with the giblets, onions, cloves, carrots, parsnip, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

  6. Almost cover the pan with stock.

  7. Cover the pan tightly.

Braise and brown

  1. Simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours, depending on the size of the turkey.

  2. If serving hot, brown the turkey in the oven or with hot coals on the lid.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the vegetables from the pan.

  2. Boil the gravy down, skimming off fat.

  3. Garnish with boiled carrot and turnip or fried small sausages.

  4. Strain part of the gravy.

  5. Stir in a spoonful of brown thickening.

  6. Pour the thickened gravy over the turkey.

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 joint that becomes tender and juicy during slow, covered braising.
Pork slices
Lay over the bird and in the pan, adding fat and moisture that keeps the meat from drying.
Stock
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the turkey and later becomes the base of the gravy.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and the gravy.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid and flavor the gravy.
Brown thickening (in the method)
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the turkey instead of running off.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the pan tightly covered. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the liquid below a hard boil, so the connective tissue softens slowly while the meat stays moist. Boiling vigorously toughens muscle fibers and dries the outside.

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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