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A Boned Turkey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

A Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grate the stale bread and soak the crusts in water to soften.

  2. Crumble the soaked bread into a pan.

  3. Cut the butter into the crumbled bread.

  4. Rub the herbs to powder and add 2 tablespoons each of sweet marjoram and sweet basil.

  5. Chop the pot-herbs and pound the spices.

  6. Mix the salt, pepper, and all ingredients well together.

  7. Beat the eggs slightly and mix them with the seasoning and bread crumbs.

  8. Carefully separate the turkey flesh from the bone, starting at the wings and working down to the thighs.

  9. Pull the turkey by the neck to remove the skeleton intact.

  10. Sew up any holes in the skin with needle and thread.

  11. Stuff the turkey with the seasoning, starting at the wings, then the body, and finally the thighs.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, egg, parsley, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, egg, parsley, thyme, marjoram. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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