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Salmis of Turkey

A stew of sliced roast turkey with bacon, mushrooms, truffles, herbs, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 370 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Salmis of Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into thin slices and place them at the bottom of a stewpan.

  2. Chop the mushrooms, truffles, parsley, chervil, and chives, and add them to the stewpan.

  3. Place the slices of turkey on top of the chopped ingredients.

  4. Season well with salt and pepper.

Stew and serve

  1. Pour the claret and water over the turkey until covered.

  2. Put the stewpan on moderate heat and let it stew well.

  3. Remove the fat from the sauce and 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. Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast turkey
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender as it gently stews in the liquid.
Bacon
Its fat renders into the pan, adding savoury richness to the stew and sauce.
Mushrooms
Release their moisture and earthy flavour into the stew, adding body to the sauce.
Truffles
Contribute a strong, aromatic earthy flavour that defines the dish.
Claret
Adds acidity and depth to the braising liquid, helping flavour the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew on moderate heat. Stewing gently keeps the turkey tender and allows the liquid to slowly extract flavour. Too much heat can toughen the meat and reduce the liquid too quickly, so keep it at a steady simmer.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, mushroom, truffle, pepper, chervil, chive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, mushroom, truffle, pepper, chervil, chive. 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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