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Stewed Turkey, or Turkey En Daube

A slow‑cooked turkey with bacon, calves' feet, onions, carrots, herbs, and wine, served with its gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Stewed Turkey, or Turkey En Daube

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the turkey and stuff it as for roasting.

  2. Season the turkey with salt, pepper, nutmeg, sweet herbs, parsley, and minced onions.

Stew

  1. Place the turkey in a stew pan with bacon, calves' feet, onions, carrots, bay leaves, cloves, beaten nutmeg, and garlic if using.

  2. Pour in the water and white wine or brandy.

  3. Cover the stew pan and wrap a wet cloth around the edge to keep it moist.

  4. Stew slowly for 5 to 6 hours, turning the turkey halfway through.

Finish and serve

  1. When finished, remove from heat, skim, and strain the gravy.

  2. Serve the turkey with the gravy underneath.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Nutmeg + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow stewing.
Calves' feet
Adds gelatin, which gives the gravy body and a silky, rich texture.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the meat and the liquid as it stews.
White wine or brandy
Adds acidity and aromatic flavor that helps tenderize the meat and deepen the gravy.
Carrots
Release sweetness and body into the stewing liquid, rounding out the gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the lid sealed with a wet cloth. Long stewing can dry out the meat and reduce the liquid. A tight lid and wet cloth trap steam so the turkey stays moist while the connective tissue slowly softens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, parsley, carrot):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, marjoram, parsley, carrot. 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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