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Boned Turkey or Chicken

A stuffed turkey filled with a mixture of veal, chicken, ham or tongue, seasoned and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boned Turkey or Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the turkey as directed.

  2. Disjoint the chicken and remove skin, sinews, and bones.

  3. Cut the meat from the thighs and breast into thin strips and set aside.

  4. Chop the remaining chicken meat with the veal.

  5. Add cracker crumbs and moisten with hot stock. Season to taste.

Stuff and shape

  1. Fill the legs and wings of the turkey with the mixture.

  2. Layer the fillets, force-meat, and slices of tongue or ham on the breast.

  3. Add reserved chicken meat and more force-meat.

  4. Sew and tie into shape.

Steam, bake and serve

  1. Steam the turkey over bones in a kettle with cold water for 3 hours. Remove the cloth.

  2. Dredge with salt and flour. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour until browned.

  3. Serve cold, garnished with parsley, jelly, carrots, and potato balls.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Turkey + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the whole shell that holds the stuffing and cooks as the main structure.
Eggs
Bind the force-meat so it holds together when sliced and served cold.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb stock and add body, helping the force-meat stay moist and set.
Raw lean veal
Adds mild meaty body and a fine texture to the chopped filling.
Meat from a 4-pound chicken
Supplies the main meat of the filling and contributes moisture and flavour.
Potted ham or tongue
Adds savoury flavour and a contrasting layer inside the turkey.

The step that matters

Steam the turkey over bones for 3 hours. Long gentle steaming cooks the large bird through and sets the stuffing, and the water must stay at a steady simmer so the meat cooks evenly without drying out.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, chicken, veal, egg, pepper, ham):

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, chicken, veal, egg, pepper, 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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