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Boiling Poultry

A boiled turkey stuffed with a light force‑meat of grated loaf, oysters, and spices, served with oyster sauce and garnished with barberries and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Boiling Poultry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Do not dress the turkey until 3-4 days after killing for best results.

  2. Pluck the turkey.

  3. Draw it at the rump.

  4. Cut off the legs.

  5. Tie the ends of the thighs into the body with string.

  6. Remove the head and neck.

Make and stuff

  1. Mix the grated loaf, chopped oysters, lemon peel, salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter, eggs, and cream into a light force-meat.

  2. Stuff the turkey with part of the force-meat.

  3. Form the rest of the force-meat into balls to boil.

  4. Sew up the turkey.

  5. Dredge the turkey with flour.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the turkey in a kettle of cold water.

  2. Cover the kettle.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off any scum that rises.

  5. Once boiling, reduce heat.

  6. Let it simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

  7. Cover and let it steam in the residual heat.

  8. Serve the turkey with oyster sauce poured over it.

  9. Arrange the force-meat balls around it.

  10. Garnish with barberries and lemon.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Is the main body that is cooked and served whole.
Penny loaf
Bread crumbs bind the force-meat and give it a light, soft body.
Oysters
Provide the briny, savoury flavour that defines the force-meat and sauce.
Eggs
Bind the force-meat so it holds together when stuffed and boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the force-meat moist.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the force-meat.

The step that matters

Reduce heat after boiling. Once the kettle reaches a boil, a gentle simmer cooks the turkey and force-meat through without toughening the meat or breaking up the force-meat balls.

“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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