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Minced Turkey with Poached Egg

A dish of minced turkey seasoned with salt, pepper, and celery, served on buttered toast topped with poached eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Minced Turkey with Poached Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Trim off all skin and most fat from the turkey.

  2. Cut the turkey into neat slices.

  3. Season the turkey with salt, pepper, and minced celery.

  4. Chop the seasoned turkey.

Cook the mince

  1. In a pan, heat a little butter or turkey fat to prevent burning.

  2. Add the chopped turkey to the pan.

  3. Moisten the mixture with a little broth made from the turkey bones.

Serve

  1. Poach 1-2 eggs for each person.

  2. Arrange the minced turkey neatly on slices of buttered toast.

  3. Place the poached egg on top.

  4. 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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 and is the protein that is minced and reheated.
Eggs
Poached eggs add a soft, runny yolk that enriches the minced turkey when broken over it.
Broth made from turkey bones
Adds moisture so the minced turkey stays tender and does not dry out when heated.
Butter or turkey fat
Fat for frying that carries flavour and helps keep the turkey from sticking or burning.
Buttered toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the minced turkey and egg.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with broth without overcooking the turkey. Cooked turkey dries out and toughens quickly when heated. Adding a little broth and keeping the heat gentle helps the mince stay tender and juicy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pepper, butter, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, butter, egg. 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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