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Boned Turkey or Chicken

A stuffed turkey or chicken filled with veal, cracker crumbs, eggs, ham or tongue, then steamed and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the turkey as directed.

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

  3. Cut the meat from the thighs and breast into long thin strips and set aside.

  4. Chop the remaining chicken meat with the veal.

  5. Add cracker crumbs and moisten with hot stock; season to taste.

  6. Layer the fillets, force‑meat, and slices of tongue or ham inside the turkey.

  7. Fill the legs and wings of the turkey with the mixture.

Cook and serve

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

  2. Put the bones and trimmings in a kettle and cover with cold water.

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

  4. Remove the cloth, dredge with salt and flour, and bake for one hour or until browned.

  5. Serve cold, garnished with parsley, jelly, carrots, and beets cut into fancy shapes.

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

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

  3. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  4. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the stuffing and supplies the lean, tender meat filling.
Raw lean veal
Adds tender, mild meat that keeps the force-meat moist and soft once cooked.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb the hot stock and help bind the force-meat into a cohesive filling.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and crumbs so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
Potted ham or tongue
Adds savory, salty flavour and a contrasting layer inside the stuffed bird.

The step that matters

Steam the turkey over the bones for three hours. Gentle, prolonged moist heat cooks the stuffed bird through and keeps the meat tender; boiling too hard could break the shape and dry or toughen the outer meat.

Swap the thyme

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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