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A Boned Turkey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

A Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Draw, wash, and dry the turkey.

  2. Using a sharp knife, carefully separate the flesh from the bones, starting at the neck and working around the shoulders, wings, breast, back, and thighs.

  3. Gently pull the neck to remove the skeleton from the flesh.

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

  5. Grate the bread crumbs and soak the crust in water until soft.

  6. Mix the soaked crust with the bread crumbs and butter.

  7. Add the minced herbs, chopped onions, ground spices, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

  8. Incorporate the beaten eggs gradually to bind the stuffing.

  9. Stuff the turkey tightly, starting with the wings, then the body, and finally the thighs.

  10. Sew and skewer the turkey into its natural shape.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Basil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

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

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