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Leg of a Turkey, Warmed Over

A turkey leg simmered with wine, broth, herbs, and garlic, served with a ragout of sweetbread, leeks, and optional anchovies, capers, olives, truffles or mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Leg of a Turkey, Warmed Over

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the turkey

  1. In a stewpan, combine the turkey legs, white wine, thick broth, salt, pepper, sweet herbs, garlic, and cloves.

  2. Cook for 1 hour, then simmer down the sauce.

  3. Transfer the turkey legs to a plate.

Make the ragout

  1. In another stewpan, heat butter, lard, or sweet oil with sweetbread, parsley, and leeks.

  2. Sprinkle with flour and moisten with broth and white wine.

  3. Boil over low heat for 30 minutes, skimming off grease.

  4. Add anchovies, capers, and olives, and heat without boiling.

Serve

  1. Pour the ragout over the turkey legs and serve.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey legs
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow cooking in liquid.
Sweetbread of veal
Adds a rich, tender texture and savoury depth to the ragout.
Flour
Thickens the ragout's cooking liquid into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps balance its richness.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, sweet onion-like aroma and body to the ragout base.

The step that matters

Skimming off grease during the 30-minute boil. Fat rises to the surface as the ragout simmers; removing it keeps the sauce clean-tasting and prevents it from becoming greasy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, white wine, pepper, garlic, veal, parsley, leek):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, white wine, pepper, garlic, veal, parsley, leek. 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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