Why it works: Turkey and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 830 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Boiled Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the turkey as for roasting, using finely chopped pork instead of butter for the dressing.
Truss the turkey by turning the wings on its back and securing it tightly with a cloth.
Cook
Boil water in a large pot and add 1 to 2 pounds of salt pork that has been boiling for some time.
Place the turkey in the boiling water and let it cook for 1.5 hours.
Serve
Serve the turkey with the boiled pork on a separate dish, garnished with parsley, and accompanied by oyster or celery 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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Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together830 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pork + oystertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,255 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Turkey + parsleytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together532 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Pork + parsleytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,804 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
- Turkey
- Forms the main dish and provides the meat that cooks through in the simmering water.
- Finely chopped pork
- Supplies fat to the dressing in place of butter, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
- Salt pork
- Flavours the cooking water, which in turn seasons the turkey as it cooks.
The step that matters
Placing the turkey in boiling water. A large cold bird drops the temperature of the water when added. The water must return to a boil and stay hot, or the turkey cooks unevenly. Trussing firmly helps the bird keep its shape in the pot.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork, oyster):
- Sagefits better
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork, oyster. 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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