Name: Stuffing for Turkey
Ingredients: 1 pound veal, parboiled; 4 ounces lean ham; 1 cup grated bread; 1 dozen oysters, scalded and minced; oyster liquor; white pepper; salt; pounded mace (optional); 1 egg

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Stuffing for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

Mince the parboiled veal and lean ham together.
Add the grated bread and minced oysters to the mixture.
Season with white pepper and salt, and add pounded mace if desired.
Moisten the mixture with the oyster liquor and bind it with the egg.

Use

Use the stuffing for turkey.

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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,545 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ham + oystertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal: Provides the bulk and meaty body of the stuffing.
Lean ham: Adds savoury, salty flavour to the minced meat base.
Grated bread: Absorbs liquid and gives the stuffing a light, soft texture.
Oysters: Contribute a briny, savoury flavour throughout the stuffing.
Egg: Binds the mixture so it holds together when cooked.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, bread, oyster, white pepper, egg):

Nutmegfits better
Parsleyfits better
Marjoramfits about as well
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, oyster, white pepper, egg. 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.