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Turkey, Devilled.

A roasted turkey served with a spicy butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Turkey, Devilled.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the butter, cayenne, black pepper, curry powder, ground ginger, and piquante sauce to make the devilled butter.

  2. Cut the turkey into convenient pieces and remove all skin.

  3. Score the turkey pieces lightly and spread them with the devilled butter.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the turkey pieces over the fire for about 8 minutes.

  2. Serve with piquante sauce or another suitable sauce.

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 + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Turkey + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Cold roast turkey
Provides the lean meat that is heated through and given a seasoned, browned surface.
Butter
Carries the spices over the turkey and adds richness and moisture to the surface.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that gives the devilled coating its sharp, spicy character.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the devilled butter.

The step that matters

Grilling the turkey pieces. The turkey is already cooked, so the grill only needs to warm it and brown the coated surface. Heating too long can dry the meat and scorch the butter and spices before the centre is hot.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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