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Turkey, Stewed

A whole turkey stewed with butter, bacon, herbs, stock, and Madeira, finished with a brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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, Stewed

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Stuff and truss the turkey as for roasting.

  2. Melt the butter in a stewpan large enough to hold the bird and add the diced bacon.

  3. Brown the turkey on one side over a clear fire, then turn it to brown the other side.

  4. Remove the turkey, drain it, and place it in another stewpan with parsley, mace, and garlic if using.

Stew and finish

  1. Cover the turkey with stock, add pepper and salt, and simmer gently until half-cooked.

  2. Add the Madeira and continue cooking until the turkey is done.

  3. Transfer the turkey to a dish and keep it warm in a 400 °F (200 °C) oven for a few minutes.

  4. Strain and skim the gravy, thicken it with brown thickening, and boil for 1–2 minutes.

  5. Pour some gravy around the turkey and serve the rest in a tureen.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it simmers slowly in stock.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the turkey and carries flavor into the dish.
Bacon
Renders fat and savory flavor into the butter used to brown the turkey.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the cooking liquid and gravy.
Brown thickening
Thickens the strained stock into a gravy that clings to the turkey.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until half-cooked. A gentle simmer cooks the turkey through without toughening its proteins. Boiling hard makes the meat dry and stringy, so keep the liquid barely moving.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, parsley, mace, garlic, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, parsley, mace, garlic, pepper. 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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