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To Re-cook Cold Turkey

A casserole of leftover turkey and oysters baked with cracker crumbs, spices, and oyster liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Re-cook Cold Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

Layer the casserole

  1. In a deep dish, layer cracker crumbs, turkey, and oysters.

  2. Season each layer with salt, mace, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Repeat layers until all turkey and oysters are used, adding a little oyster liquor.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 20 minutes, then add more oyster liquor, beaten egg, butter, and cracker crumbs.

  2. Grate nutmeg over the top and brown nicely.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the added liquid and crumbs into a set, custard-like layer on top.
Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour and a tender texture that stands out against the turkey.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb the liquor and butter and give the layers body and a lightly crisp top.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Grate nutmeg over the top and brown nicely. The top needs enough oven time to brown through the dairy-free surface without drying the layers below. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs dry heat and sugars and amino acids at the surface. Watch the colour rather than the clock.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, oyster, pepper, egg, butter, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, oyster, pepper, egg, butter, nutmeg. 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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