Name: Boiled Turkey a l’Anglaise
Ingredients: 1 fine tender turkey (about 5 lb); 1 pint cooked spinach; 6 slices cooked lean ham; 1 breakfast cup hot broth

Why it works: Turkey and ham work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Boiled Turkey a l’Anglaise

Ingredients

1 fine tender turkey (about 5 lb)
1 pint cooked spinach
6 slices cooked lean ham
1 breakfast cup hot broth

Directions

Prepare the turkey

Singe and draw the turkey, then truss it from the wing to the leg with a needle.

Cook and serve

Place the turkey in a soup pot and cook for one hour.
Transfer the turkey to a hot dish.
Decorate the dish with cooked spinach and slices of ham.
Pour hot broth over the turkey to keep it moist.

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.

Turkey + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Turkey + spinachtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Spinach + hamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together144 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey: Is the main dish that is cooked whole and carved for serving.
Hot broth: Adds moisture to the turkey so it stays moist while it is served.
Cooked spinach: Serves as a green decorative base that adds color and a mild, earthy flavor.
Cooked ham: Adds savory, salty flavor and a contrast to the mild turkey and spinach.