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Almond Dressing for Turkey

A savory almond-based sauce for turkey, made with almonds, breadcrumbs, broth, butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Almond Dressing for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and grind the almonds.

  2. Mix ground almonds with breadcrumbs, broth, salt, and pepper.

Cook and finish

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the almond mixture.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

  3. Stir in lemon juice before serving.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Almond + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the dressing.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the dressing its bulk and soft texture.
Broth
Adds moisture so the breadcrumbs soften and the mixture can thicken.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavour and a smooth mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury flavours.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened. Low heat and constant stirring keep the mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pan while starch from the breadcrumbs absorbs liquid and thickens evenly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, lemon):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, lemon. 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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