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Boned Turkey

A stuffed turkey boiled in a broth that sets into a jelly, served with the broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Clean and dry the turkey, then lay it on a cutting board.

  2. Using a sharp knife, split down the back and carefully remove all bones, starting from the wings.

  3. After removing the wing bones, cut around the breast-bone and remove the breast and leg bones.

  4. Wash the turkey and dry it again.

Stuff and truss

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing finely chopped veal, sausages, bread crumbs, mace, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, ham or tongue, and 2 raw eggs.

  2. Optionally, add truffles or mushrooms for extra flavor.

  3. Fill the turkey with the stuffing, including the wings, legs, and breast.

  4. Sew up the turkey with twine and a meat needle, skewer the wings, and tie down the legs.

Make the broth

  1. In a covered saucepan, combine broken calf's feet, turkey bones, mace, pepper, salt, carrot, onion, and 2 quarts of water.

  2. Place the turkey on top of the bones and let it boil slowly for 3 hours.

  3. Remove the turkey and strain the broth.

Clarify and set the jelly

  1. Beat the egg whites and return the broth to a boil.

  2. Add the egg whites, shells, lemon, and white wine, and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Add 1 cup of cold water and let it stand for 15 minutes before straining through a flannel bag.

  4. Pour 1 pint of the broth into a small mold to place on the turkey's breast, and serve the rest on a dish.

  5. Once cooled, cut the jelly into square pieces and garnish around the turkey.

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 + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Ham + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

  4. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Calf's feet
Supply gelatin, so the strained broth sets into a jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Coagulate and collect fine particles, helping clarify the broth to a clear jelly.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help bind the stuffing so it holds together while cooking.
Raw eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds its shape as it cooks.
Sausages
Add fat and seasoning that keep the stuffing moist and flavourful.

The step that matters

Boiling the egg whites into the broth. As the egg whites heat, they coagulate and trap cloudy particles, which then strain out. Adding them to a boiling broth and boiling briefly clarifies it, so the jelly sets clear rather than murky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, pepper, ham, egg, truffle, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, pepper, ham, egg, truffle, carrot. 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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