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Imitation Boned Turkey

A baked imitation turkey made from veal, pickled pork, eggs, parsley, crackers, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Imitation Boned Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the veal and pickled pork finely.

  2. Beat the eggs until light.

  3. Mince the parsley finely and roll the crackers.

Shape and bake

  1. Combine the chopped meat, eggs, parsley, crushed crackers, salt, and nutmeg; mix thoroughly.

  2. Form the mixture into two rolls and place them side by side in a pan.

  3. Sprinkle dry bread crumbs over the rolls and add a little water to the pan.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for at least 2.5 hours, basting with the pan gravy occasionally.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the lean, firm body of the rolls and gives the loaf its meaty texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the rolls hold their shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and add body, keeping the rolls tender rather than dense.
Pickled pork
Adds fat and salty, savory flavor to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Baking the rolls for a long time with basting. Veal is lean and dries out easily, so a long, moderate bake with pan juices spooned over keeps the rolls moist while the meat fully cooks through and the binding sets.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, egg, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, nutmeg, bread. 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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