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Turkey Stuffing

A savory oyster stuffing made with fresh oysters, butter, bread, eggs, parsley, celery, summer savory, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Turkey Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oysters

  1. Scald the oysters in a saucepan, then drain them in a colander.

Make the stuffing

  1. Melt the butter in a deep skillet without letting it get hot.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and stir them into the melted butter.

  3. Add the parsley, celery, summer savory, salt, and pepper, then mix in the bread.

  4. Beat the egg whites to a stiff foam and fold them into the mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the oysters and use the stuffing while warm.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + summer savorytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main flavor and tender, briny pieces throughout the stuffing.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the bread so it stays soft rather than dry.
Bread
Forms the body of the stuffing and soaks up the butter and egg for a moist texture.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing, and the whites whipped to foam add lightness.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal aroma and a little brightness.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to a stiff foam and folding them in. Stiff egg whites trap air that gives lift to the stuffing. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard would deflate the foam and leave the stuffing dense.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, bread, egg, parsley, summer savory, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, bread, egg, parsley, summer savory, 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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