Name: Turkey for Boiling
Ingredients: 1 turkey; coarse sea salt; black pepper; minced parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turkey for Boiling

Ingredients

1 turkey
coarse sea salt
black pepper
minced parsley

Directions

Pick and draw the turkey, removing the leg bone close to the foot.
Leave the crop skin long enough to turn over, then remove the crop, liver, gizzard, and gut.
Wipe the inside clean and place a double cloth on the breast.
Flatten the breast bone with a rolling pin.
Rub a little black pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced parsley inside the turkey.
Raise the thigh skin with your finger and tuck the legs under the apron.
Stuff the turkey through the vent as you would for roasting.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Turkey + parsleytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together532 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).