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To Boil Turkey

A boiled turkey stuffed with bread, herbs, suet, ham, lemon peel, anchovy, butter, spices, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper 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 ↓

To Boil Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a stuffing by mixing bread, herbs, beef suet, ham, lemon peel, anchovy, butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and egg.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the turkey's crop and tie it closed.

  3. Wrap the turkey in a floured cloth and place it in cold water.

Boil and finish

  1. Skim the water often and cover the pot.

  2. Boil a young turkey of moderate size for 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let steam finish cooking.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Turkey + beeftop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together248 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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
Provides the main body of the dish, cooked gently by boiling and steam.
Bread
Forms the base of the stuffing, absorbing moisture and giving it body.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape during cooking.
Beef suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, contributing richness and a softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat to the stuffing, carrying flavour and adding richness.

The step that matters

Skimming the water and keeping the pot covered. Boiling poultry can cloud the liquid and make it tough if the water is allowed to churn hard. Skimming removes foam, and a covered pot keeps the temperature steady so the meat cooks gently and stays tender.

“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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