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Galantine of Turkey

A chilled turkey galantine served in cups with pickled beet, egg yolk, and mayonnaise on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,562 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Galantine of Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the turkey

  1. Boil the turkey in cold water until the meat slips from the bones.

  2. Remove the meat while hot and let it cool.

  3. Return the bones to the pot and simmer for 2 more hours to make stock.

  4. Strain the stock to have 1 pint of strong liquid.

Make the gelatine mixture

  1. Heat the stock and clarify it with egg white, then strain through flannel and color with caramel.

  2. Soak the gelatine in 1 cup of cold water for 2 hours, then dissolve it in the heated stock.

  3. Add onion juice, kitchen bouquet, and lemon juice to the gelatine mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Dip cups in cold water, place a slice of pickled beet at the bottom, and add a teaspoon of the gelatine mixture.

  2. Layer a slice of hard-boiled egg yolk, then fill with minced turkey, leaving ½ inch from the top.

  3. Pour in the remaining gelatine mixture to fill the cups, allowing it to settle.

  4. Chill on ice until ready to serve.

  5. Turn out onto crisp lettuce leaves and serve with mayonnaise dressing.

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. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Turkey + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together464 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tough turkey
Provides the meat and the bones that make the flavourful stock.
Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable jelly when chilled.
Egg white
Clarifies the stock, collecting particles so it becomes clear.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds a firm, mild layer and contrasting colour inside each cup.
Pickled beet
Adds sharp, sweet acidity and bright colour to the bottom layer.

The step that matters

Clarify the stock with egg white. Egg white proteins coagulate and trap cloudy particles as they heat. Heating too hard or stirring too much breaks up the raft, leaving the jelly cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, lemon, egg, lettuce):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, lemon, egg, lettuce. 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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