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To Boil a Turkey

A turkey stuffed with oysters, breadcrumbs, marjoram, butter, cream, and egg yolks, then boiled and served with oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

To Boil a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Mix the chopped oysters, bread crumbs, marjoram, butter, cream, and egg yolks until well combined.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the turkey's craw.

  3. Sew up the skin of the turkey.

  4. Dredge the turkey with flour.

  5. Skewer the liver and gizzard to the sides under the wings.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the turkey in a large pot covered with cold water.

  2. Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises.

  4. Remove the pot from heat.

  5. Set the pot on hot coals to stew slowly for 2 to 2.5 hours, depending on the turkey's size.

  6. Heat the turkey again over the fire before serving.

  7. Serve with oyster sauce in a small tureen.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main savory flavor and moisture within the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the stuffing body and structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the stuffing tender and flavorful.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together and help it set as it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the stuffing soft.

The step that matters

Set the pot on hot coals to stew slowly. Gentle, slow heat cooks the large bird through and keeps the stuffing tender. Overheating can toughen the meat and make the stuffing dry or rubbery.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, butter, cream, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, butter, cream, 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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