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Imitation Boned Turkey

A loaf of seasoned veal and pork mixture shaped like a turkey, baked slowly with crumbs and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Imitation Boned 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped veal, pickled pork, beaten eggs, minced parsley, rolled crackers, salt, and grated nutmeg, and mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into two rolls and place them side by side in a baking pan.

  2. Sprinkle dry bread crumbs over the rolls and add a little water to the pan.

  3. Bake for at least 2.5 hours, basting occasionally with the pan gravy.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body of the meat mixture, giving the loaf its bulk and tender texture.
Pickled pork
Adds fat and salty, savory flavor that keeps the meat from drying out.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and cracker mixture so the rolls hold their shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb juices and fat while the meat cooks, helping keep the loaf moist and bound.

The step that matters

Baste during the long bake. Meatloaf cooked for hours can dry out at the surface. Basting with pan juices recoats the rolls and keeps the exterior moist while the interior sets.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, egg, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, nutmeg, bread. 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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