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Fried Turkey

Slices of raw turkey breast are rolled in seasoned flour and fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut slices from the breast of a raw turkey.

  2. Roll the turkey slices in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the slices in a mixture of butter and lard until they are light brown.

  2. Serve immediately; the turkey will be tender.

  3. Use the remaining turkey for stew or roast it after stuffing.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Turkey breast
Provides the main protein, which cooks into tender slices when fried briefly.
Flour
Forms a light coating that helps the surface brown during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour and helps the coating brown in the pan.
Lard
Provides a high-heat frying fat that browns the coating evenly.

The step that matters

Frying until light brown. Frying over-long dries out lean turkey breast, while too little heat leaves the flour coating pale and greasy. Watching the colour helps keep the meat moist and the crust properly browned.

“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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