Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Roast Turkey, a LA Ciiipo
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stuffing
Cut the turkey into pieces the size of a small walnut.
Pound the parings with the fat ham or bacon and add to the turkey pieces.
Season with mignonette pepper, coarse sea salt, grated nutmeg, chopped thyme, and minced garlic.
Simmer the mixture gently in a stewpan for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then stuff it into the turkey, keeping the crop full.
Use a trussing needle and twine to secure the crop in a purse-like form.
Rest and truss
Place the turkey on an earthen dish and refrigerate overnight if time permits.
Truss the turkey for roasting the next day.
Roast and serve
Cover the turkey breast with thin layers of fat bacon and wrap it in buttered paper.
Secure the paper with string and roast the turkey until cooked through.
Carefully remove the turkey from the spit without tearing the crop.
Serve with a rich Périgueux sauce and garnish with quenelles of fowl and truffles if desired.
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.
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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,907 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,608 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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, cooked through by roasting to become tender.
- Fat ham or bacon
- Adds fat and moisture, keeping the lean meat juicy during roasting and flavouring the stuffing.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that mellows and deepens during the simmering and roasting.
- Thyme
- Adds herbal aroma that complements the richness of the meat and fat.
The step that matters
Keeping the crop full and secure during roasting. The stuffing is cooked only partly before filling, and it must stay packed inside the sealed crop. If the crop tears or loosens, the stuffing can spill out and dry out, and the bird may cook unevenly.
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, ham, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, clove, liver):
- Marjoramfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Sagefits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, ham, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, clove, liver. 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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