Name: Mock Turkey
Ingredients: 3 cups sifted lentils; 1 cup walnut butter; 1 pound zwieback, moistened with water; 3 heaping teaspoons powdered sage; 1 cup gluten; 2 teaspoons salt; 2 eggs

Why it works: Walnut and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mock Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine the lentils, walnut butter, zwieback, sage, gluten, and salt.
Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.
Moisten the zwieback with enough water before mixing it with the other ingredients.
Form the mixture into a loaf or shape it like a turkey.
If shaping into a turkey, ensure the mixture is stiff; it can be less stiff for a loaf.

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.

Walnut + sagetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together179 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lentils + walnuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together28 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lentils + sagetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together37 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + sagetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).