Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Dressing for Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Mix sage, soaked bread, summer savory, salt, pepper, and butter in a bowl, then combine until well blended.
Use this mixture to stuff the turkey before roasting.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together237 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together671 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Soaked bread
- Forms the body of the stuffing and absorbs moisture and flavour from the other ingredients.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and moisture, and helps the stuffing brown as it cooks.
- Sage
- Provides the dominant herbal aroma of the stuffing.
- Summer savory
- Adds a peppery, thyme-like aroma that complements the sage.
Swap the summer savory
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, pepper, butter, egg):
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Summer savorythe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, pepper, butter, egg. 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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