Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Boiled Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turkey
Draw the sinews and truss the turkey with the legs out for easy carving.
Clean the turkey well after singeing.
Prepare the stuffing by mixing stale bread crumbs, marrow or butter, parsley, oysters, and chopped ham if desired.
Stuff the turkey with the mixture before boiling.
Boil
Place the turkey in a large pot and cover with clean water.
Use a clear but moderate fire; simmer the turkey for 2.5 hours for a large fowl, 2 hours for a smaller one, and 1 hour 10 minutes to 40 minutes for very small turkeys.
Skim the surface carefully and constantly.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Provides the main protein, which firms and sets as it cooks gently in water.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
- Marrow or butter
- Adds fat, which carries flavour and keeps the stuffing moist and rich.
- Oysters
- Add briny, savoury flavour and a tender texture to the stuffing.
The step that matters
Skim the surface carefully and constantly. Simmering water throws foam and fat to the surface. Removing it keeps the broth clear and the meat clean-tasting, and stops scum from settling back onto the bird.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham):
- Thymefits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham. 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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