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Boiling Poultry

A boiled turkey stuffed with a mixture of grated bread, oysters, lemon peel, spices, butter, eggs, and cream.

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 ↓

Boiling Poultry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Pluck the turkey and draw it at the rump.

  2. Cut off the legs and tuck the ends of the thighs into the body, tying them with string.

  3. Cut off the head and neck.

  4. In a bowl, mix the grated bread, chopped oysters, lemon peel, salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter, eggs, and cream to make a light stuffing.

  5. Stuff the turkey's cavity with part of the mixture and form the rest into balls.

  6. Sew up the turkey and dredge it with flour.

Boil and serve

  1. Place it in a kettle of cold water and cover it tightly.

  2. Bring the kettle to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and let it sit covered for a while to finish cooking in the steam.

  5. Serve the turkey with oyster sauce poured over it, placing the stuffing balls around it.

  6. Garnish with barberries and lemon.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 meat that is cooked gently by simmering in water.
Penny loaf
Grated bread absorbs the liquids and egg, giving the stuffing body and structure.
Oysters
Chopped oysters add a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing and sauce.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing mixture together so it holds its shape when formed into balls.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the stuffing and contributing flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the stuffing, keeping it light and tender.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly after boiling. Once the kettle reaches a boil, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the water from churning and toughening the meat. Skimming scum at the start keeps the cooking liquid clear.

“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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