Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Turkey, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the turkey
Boil the turkey hen in enough water to cover it for about 2 hours.
Tie the wings to the sides of the turkey.
Turn the turkey occasionally as the water boils down.
Season the water with salt.
Make the egg sauce
Chop the hard-boiled eggs and place them in a skillet with cold water.
Add the flour to the eggs and water before heating.
Heat the skillet on the fire and let the mixture stew thoroughly.
Skim off any oily particles from the turkey broth and add them to the egg sauce.
Just before removing the sauce from the heat, stir in the butter.
Serve
Serve the turkey dressed with the egg sauce.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey hen
- Is the main meat, cooked by simmering until tender in the water.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Chopped and stewed to form the body and richness of the egg sauce.
- Flour
- Added to the egg and water mixture to thicken the sauce as it heats.
- Butter
- Stirred in at the end to add richness and a smooth, glossy finish to the sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the butter just before removing the sauce from the heat. Butter added over high heat can separate and turn greasy, so stirring it in off the heat keeps the sauce smooth and emulsified.
“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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