Name: Boned Turkey
Ingredients: 1 turkey; fat bacon; salt; water; butter; port wine (optional); stuffing

Why it works: Butter and port wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,499 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the turkey thoroughly.
Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the flesh from the bones, preserving the skin whole.
Run the knife down each side of the breastbone and up the legs, keeping close to the bone.
Split the back halfway up and remove the bones.
Fill the cavities with stuffing and restore the turkey to its natural shape.
Sew up all the incisions in the skin.
Lard the top with 2-3 rows of fat bacon.
Baste often with a mixture of salt, water, and a little butter.
Optionally, add a glass of port wine to the gravy.
Carve into slices and serve with tomato sauce.

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.

Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,499 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Turkey + port winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30 recipes

Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).