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Turkey in Jelly

Turkey stuffed with force-meat, truffles, and mushrooms, braised in gravy, served with jelly and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Turkey in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove the bones from the turkey.

  2. Stuff the turkey with force-meat, truffles, and mushrooms.

  3. Lard the turkey with fat bacon and tie it in shape.

Stew

  1. Place it in a pan with braize and strong gravy.

  2. Stew for 3 hours until tender enough to pass a skewer through easily.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool, then remove the fat.

  2. Serve on a dish with jelly around it and lemon slices.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Meat + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Turkey + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow stewing.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture to the lean turkey as it cooks.
Truffles
Contribute a concentrated earthy aroma to the stuffing.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury flavour to the stuffing.
Strong gravy
Provides liquid and rich savoury flavour for the stewing.

The step that matters

Stew for 3 hours until tender enough to pass a skewer through easily.. Slow, gentle stewing breaks down connective tissue in the turkey. Too little time leaves it tough, while a hard boil can toughen the meat and dry out the surface.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Red currantfits about as well
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, truffle, mushroom. 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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