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Turkey, Rolled

A rolled turkey stuffed with veal forcemeat, wrapped in bacon, simmered in stock with herbs and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turkey, Rolled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Cut the turkey down the middle into two parts.

  2. Remove the bones without injuring the skin.

  3. Lay the pieces flat on the table, skin side down.

  4. Spread a layer of veal forcemeat over each piece.

  5. Roll the turkey pieces up like a sausage.

  6. Cover the rolls with thin slices of bacon.

  7. Tie the rolls on with twine.

Simmer

  1. Place the rolls in a stewpan.

  2. Cover the rolls with stock.

  3. Add parsley, thyme, carrots, onions, parsnip, mace, pepper, and salt to the stewpan.

  4. Simmer gently for 1.5 hours.

  5. Skim the liquid carefully.

  6. If desired, add a glass of wine when the turkey is half-cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the rolls on a hot dish.

  2. Remove the twine.

  3. Strain the sauce.

  4. Thicken the sauce.

  5. Pour some sauce over the meat.

  6. Let the rolls sit in the liquid for 30 minutes after cooking.

  7. Brush the rolls with two coats of glaze.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main meat that is rolled, cooked gently, and sliced for serving.
Veal forcemeat
Adds a rich, moist filling layer that flavours the rolled turkey as it cooks.
Fat bacon
Covers the rolls, adding fat that bastes the meat and keeps it moist.
Stock
Gently cooks the rolls in liquid, keeping the meat tender and producing the sauce.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce when included.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Rapid boiling toughens the meat proteins and breaks up the rolls, while a gentle simmer cooks the turkey evenly and keeps it tender and moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, veal, parsley, thyme, carrot, clove, parsnip):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, veal, parsley, thyme, carrot, clove, parsnip. 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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