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Boned Turkey in Jelly

A turkey stuffed with boiled chicken meat and set in aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boned Turkey in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Prepare the force-meat with boiled chicken meat.

  2. Stuff the turkey with the force-meat, including the tongue on top of the breast.

  3. Truss the turkey for roasting.

Poach the turkey

  1. In a large saucepan, place the turkey with onion, celery, herbs, peppercorns, clove, and giblets.

  2. Add tomatoes and cover with water; simmer until cooked through.

  3. Remove the turkey and let it cool.

Glaze and set

  1. Brush the turkey with a thick layer of aspic jelly.

  2. Set the turkey in a mold with jelly to hold it in place.

  3. Refrigerate until cold and firm.

  4. Turn out the turkey and serve with chopped jelly in different colors.

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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Chicken + turkeytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken meat
Forms the force-meat stuffing that gives the carved turkey a moist, firm filling.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that coats the turkey and holds its shape when chilled.
Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently and then set in jelly.
Giblets of the turkey
Adds savoury meaty flavour to the poaching liquid that the jelly builds on.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until cold and firm. The aspic must chill fully before the turkey is turned out, because gelatine only sets reliably at low temperatures. Turning out too early can tear the coating or let the jelly slump.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, turkey, onion, celery, tomato):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, turkey, onion, celery, tomato. 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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