Skip to main content
Main

Braised Turkey

A whole turkey braised with stuffing, salt pork, vegetables, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Prepare stuffing for the turkey.

  2. Stuff the body and breast of the turkey.

  3. Truss the turkey.

  4. Spread thin slices of salt pork over the breast and legs.

  5. Cover the turkey with buttered paper.

  6. Secure the turkey with string.

Braise

  1. In a braising pan, combine sliced salt pork, chopped celery, carrot, onion, and turnip.

  2. Place the turkey breast side up on the mixture.

  3. Cover the pan tightly.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  5. After 30 minutes, add 1 quart of water or stock.

  6. Baste the turkey every 15 minutes with the gravy.

  7. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  8. Cook for 25 minutes per pound.

  9. In the last 30 minutes, remove the cover.

  10. Remove the paper.

  11. Remove the pork.

Finish and serve

  1. Once done, lift the turkey from the pan.

  2. Untruss it and place it on a large platter.

  3. Strain the gravy and serve.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, moist cooking.
Salt pork
Its fat bastes the bird and adds savory richness as it renders.
Onion
Its sugars and aromatics flavor the braising liquid and the resulting gravy.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid and gravy.
Water or stock
Provides moisture for braising and forms the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Removing the cover in the last 30 minutes. Uncovering lets moisture escape and the surface brown and crisp, while the earlier covered braising keeps the meat moist and tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork, celery, carrot, turnip, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork, celery, carrot, turnip, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipes