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Braised Turkey

A turkey braised with bacon, ham, beef, carrots, onions, celery, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cover the bottom of a German stew-pan with bacon or ham and beef.

  2. Add chopped carrots, onions, celery, stuffing herbs, salt, pepper, allspice, and mace.

  3. Place the trussed turkey on top and cover it with a layer of the same ingredients.

Braise

  1. Cover the pan tightly with a lid and place it in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

  2. Cook gently until the turkey is done, then serve it in its own 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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Slow, moist cooking breaks down connective tissue, keeping the meat tender and juicy.
Bacon or ham
Renders fat and salty, smoky flavour that seasons the meat and the pan juices.
Beef
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the braising liquid as it cooks.
Carrots
Adds natural sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften.
Onions
Builds savoury depth as they soften and release their sugars.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, herbal flavour to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Keeping the pan covered and the heat gentle. A tight lid traps steam so the liquid and fat keep the turkey moist while the connective tissue slowly softens. Cooking too hot or uncovered can dry the meat before it becomes tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, carrot, onion, celery, pepper, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, carrot, onion, celery, pepper, allspice. 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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