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Boned Turkey

A turkey stuffed with a mixture of diced corned tongue, pork, ham, and other ingredients, then boiled in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Singe and clean the turkey.

  2. Cut off the neck an inch above the body and disjoint the wings.

  3. Carefully carve around the breast bone to remove the flesh from both sides.

  4. Disjoint the thigh and leg bones, leaving the leg whole.

  5. Remove the carcass and sew up the openings, leaving space for filling.

Make and add the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the diced corned tongue, fresh pork, boiled ham, salt pork, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms and grated nutmeg to the meat mixture.

  3. Fold in the sliced hard-boiled eggs.

  4. Fill the turkey with the meat mixture.

  5. Sew it up.

  6. Wrap it in a towel, tying both ends securely.

Boil and chill

  1. Place the wrapped turkey in a kettle of boiling stock made from the turkey bones, seasoned with cloves, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme, parsley, and onion if desired.

  2. Boil for about three hours until the upper part is above the liquid.

  3. Remove from heat and rinse in cold water.

  4. Wipe the turkey.

  5. Return it to the towel.

  6. Fold it up.

  7. Place it on a platter with a weight on top.

  8. Keep in a cool place overnight.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, remove the towel and threads used for sewing.

  2. Serve with meat jelly.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together830 recipes

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

  5. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the outer shell and, when boiled, becomes tender enough to slice cleanly.
Fresh pork
Adds fat and moisture to the filling, keeping the stuffing juicy as it cooks.
Salt pork
Contributes fat that enriches the filling and helps keep it moist.
Boiled ham
Adds savory flavor and a firm texture to the meat filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, sliced texture that holds together within the filling.
Corned tongue
Adds rich, salty, savory flavor and a dense meaty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil for about three hours until the upper part is above the liquid. Boiling gently over a long period tenderizes the tough turkey and cooks the filling through. Boiling too hard can toughen the meat and break the wrapped shape apart.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork, ham, pepper, mushroom, egg, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork, ham, pepper, mushroom, egg, clove. 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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