Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Boned Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the uncooked meat of the chickens very fine.
Cut the tongue into very thin slices.
Slice the mushrooms.
Spread the turkey out on a table, inside up, with the rump toward you.
Dust the inside with salt and pepper.
Layer sausage meat, mushrooms, chopped chicken, tongue, and parsley inside the turkey.
Repeat layers until nearly all ingredients are used.
Mix remaining ingredients to fill the wings and legs.
Bring the two sides of the skin together to form a round shape and sew it up.
Turn the turkey over, tuck back the wings, and fasten them with a small skewer.
Bring the legs down by the side of the turkey and fasten them similarly.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,449 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, meat, pepper):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, meat, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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