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Boned Turkey or Chicken

A stuffed turkey filled with chicken, veal, cracker crumbs, and seasonings, then steamed and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boned Turkey or Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the turkey as directed.

  2. Disjoint the chicken and remove skin, sinews, and bones.

  3. Cut the chicken meat into long thin strips and chop the remaining meat with the veal.

  4. Add cracker crumbs.

  5. Moisten with hot stock.

  6. Season to taste.

Stuff and steam

  1. Fill the turkey legs and wings with the mixture.

  2. Layer the fillets, force-meat, and reserved chicken meat inside the turkey.

  3. Sew and tie the turkey into its natural shape.

  4. Put the bones and trimmings in a kettle.

  5. Cover with cold water.

  6. Steam the turkey over the bones for 3 hours.

  7. Remove the cloth.

Bake and serve

  1. Dredge with salt and flour.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour or until browned.

  3. Serve cold.

  4. Garnish with parsley, jelly, carrots, beets, or potato balls.

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Turkey + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Not listed as a step; not included in the roles.

The step that matters

Steam the turkey over the bones for 3 hours. Long, gentle steaming cooks the stuffed bird through and keeps the meat moist before it is baked for browning; too little time leaves the centre undercooked, and too much dries the meat.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, chicken, veal, egg, pepper, ham):

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, chicken, veal, egg, pepper, ham. 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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