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Turkey in a Hurry

A braised turkey cooked with lard, veal, ham, parsley, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, lemon, wine, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey in a Hurry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Truss the turkey with the legs inward and flatten it as much as possible.

  2. In a stew-pan, heat melted lard and add chopped parsley, shallots, mushrooms, and garlic; sauté briefly.

  3. Add the juice of half a lemon to keep the turkey white.

Braise

  1. Transfer the turkey to another stew-pan with slices of veal, ham, and melted lard; season with whole pepper and salt.

  2. Cover with slices of lard and cook over a slow fire for about 30 minutes.

  3. Add a glass of white wine and a little broth; finish braising.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim and sift the sauce, add a little cullis to thicken, and reduce to a good consistency.

  2. Place the turkey in a dish and pour the sauce over it.

  3. Garnish with 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 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
Is the main protein that is braised until tender in the sauce.
Lard
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the sautéed aromatics and braise.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the braising liquid.
Cullis
Thickens the sauce so it coats the turkey.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and helps keep the turkey pale in colour.

The step that matters

Skim and sift the sauce before reducing. Skimming removes fat and surface impurities, and sifting removes solids, so the sauce reduces to a clean, smooth texture. Adding cullis too early or reducing too hard can make it heavy or stick to the pan.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, parsley, shallot, mushroom, lemon, veal, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, parsley, shallot, mushroom, lemon, veal, ham. 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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