Name: Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs
Ingredients: drumsticks from chicken or turkey; force meat (see recipe for boned chicken or turkey); boiling water; 1 beaten egg; seasoned fine bread crumbs; deep frying fat; olive sauce, tartare sauce, celery sauce, or currant jelly sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Chicken and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,888 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs

Ingredients

drumsticks from chicken or turkey
force meat (see recipe for boned chicken or turkey)
boiling water
1 beaten egg
seasoned fine bread crumbs
deep frying fat
olive sauce, tartare sauce, celery sauce, or currant jelly sauce (for serving)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Remove the tendons and bone from the drumsticks.
Stuff the leg with force meat and sew the skin securely to maintain shape.

Simmer and cool

Place in a baking pan, cover with boiling water, and simmer at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Remove from water, let cool, and take out the stitches.

Coat and fry

Roll in beaten egg, then in seasoned bread crumbs, and again in egg.
Fry in deep fat for 1 minute.
Serve with your choice of sauce.

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.

Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,888 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Force meat: Fills the leg cavity, giving the finished piece a firm, moist, sliceable centre.
Beaten egg: Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the drumstick before frying.
Seasoned fine bread crumbs: Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Coat and fry. The egg and crumb coating must be fully dry and evenly applied, or it can slip off or soak up oil. Frying in hot fat sets the crumbs quickly and browns the surface, while the interior has already been cooked by simmering.

“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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Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs