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Boned Turkey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

  1. Clean the turkey thoroughly.

  2. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the flesh from the bones, preserving the skin whole.

  3. Run the knife down each side of the breastbone and up the legs, keeping close to the bone.

  4. Split the back halfway up and remove the bones.

  5. Stuff the cavity where the bones were removed, restoring the turkey's shape, and sew up the incisions.

  6. Lard the top with strips of fat bacon and baste often with a mixture of salt, water, and a little butter.

  7. Optionally, add a glass of port wine to the gravy.

  8. Carve the turkey 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.

  1. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Turkey + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, port wine, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, port wine, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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