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Devilled Turkey

A fried or baked turkey seasoned with cayenne, curry, Worcestershire, anchovy, mustard, and breaded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Devilled Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim the legs of the cold turkey.

  2. Immerse the turkey in oiled butter.

  3. Sprinkle the turkey with cayenne pepper, curry powder, and coarse sea salt.

  4. Spread a mixture of Worcestershire sauce, thick white sauce, anchovy sauce, and prepared mustard over the turkey. Set the mixture on the turkey.

  5. Coat the turkey with beaten egg and bread crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the turkey in hot fat or lard, or bake it in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  2. Dish up the turkey.

  3. Garnish with parsley.

  4. Serve.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold turkey
Serves as the main protein that is coated and cooked.
Oiled butter
Adds richness and moisture to the turkey before coating.
Egg
Beaten egg helps the bread crumbs adhere to the turkey as a coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating when fried or baked.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the spread mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the turkey in hot fat or lard, or bake it in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.. Fat that is hot enough sets the egg and bread crumb coating quickly, so it browns and crisps instead of absorbing grease or steaming. Too cool a pan leaves the coating soggy and oily.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, pepper, sauce, anchovy, egg, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, pepper, sauce, anchovy, egg, bread. 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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