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Turkey in Jelly, or with Gravy

A roasted turkey served in jelly or with gravy, seasoned with bacon, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turkey in Jelly, or with Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Stuff the boned turkey with sausage meat and truffles.

  2. Place the turkey in a stewpan and cover with slices of bacon, carrot, onions, cloves, sweet herbs, and mace.

  3. Moisten with good stock and let it stew until cooked through.

Brown and serve hot

  1. Remove the bacon and place the turkey in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes to brown.

  2. Add white wine just before serving.

  3. Serve hot with reduced sauce and forcemeat balls or stewed Portugal onions.

Serve cold in jelly

  1. For a cold presentation, place the cooled turkey in a stiff jelly in an oval mold, using skewers to keep it elevated.

  2. Carefully turn out the turkey to avoid breaking the jelly and garnish with green curled parsley.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Boned turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into tender, moist meat when stewed gently.
Sausage meat
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks inside the turkey.
Stiff jelly (with isinglass)
Sets around the cooled turkey to hold its shape and give a clear, firm coating.
Slices of fat bacon
Bastes the turkey with fat and flavour as it stews, then is removed before browning.
Good stock
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the turkey and carries the savoury flavour.
White wine
Adds acidity and brightness to the finished sauce, added just before serving.

The step that matters

Carefully turn out the turkey. A set gelatine jelly is brittle and can crack or tear when unmoulded, so the cooled turkey should be released gently to keep the coating intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, truffle, carrot, onion, clove, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, truffle, carrot, onion, clove, white wine. 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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