Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Turkey, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turkey
Pluck, singe, and draw the turkey.
Fill the turkey with veal or oyster forcemeat or chestnuts.
Truss the turkey for boiling. Draw the legs into the body and bind the turkey securely with tape.
Dredge flour over the turkey.
Boil
Place the turkey in an oval pan with warm water to cover.
Add salt, carrot, onion, cloves, peppercorns, celery, and parsley to the pan.
Bring the water to a boil. Skim the surface.
Let the water simmer gently until the turkey is tender.
Drain the turkey briefly.
Serve
Serve the turkey on a hot dish.
Pour melted butter or white sauce over it.
Accompany with parsley and butter, celery sauce, oyster sauce, chestnut sauce, or melted butter flavored with horseradish.
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.
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 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
- Hen turkey
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that becomes tender through gentle simmering.
- Flour
- Dusted over the bird, it helps form a light coating that aids the surface's appearance and texture.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic flavour to the cooking water, which is absorbed slightly by the turkey as it simmers.
- Carrot
- Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid, flavouring the broth around the bird.
The step that matters
Let the water simmer gently until the turkey is tender. A rolling boil toughens and breaks up meat fibres and can make the skin split. Gentle simmering lets collagen soften slowly, keeping the bird moist and tender.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, flour, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, butter):
- Parsnipfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, flour, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, butter. 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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