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Devilled Turkey’s Legs and Wings

A roasted turkey leg and wing dish coated in mustard, vinegar, celery sauce, fruit jelly, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Devilled Turkey’s Legs and Wings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Joint the legs and wings of the turkey.

Cook and dress

  1. Place them on a grill and broil over a slow, clear fire.

  2. In a bowl, mix the mustard, pepper vinegar, celery sauce, acid fruit jelly, salt, and pepper.

  3. Once cooked, place the legs and wings on a hot dish.

  4. Pour the sauce over them and sift the browned breadcrumbs on top.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Adds sharp pungency that cuts through the richness of the dark turkey meat.
Acid fruit jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balances the sharp seasonings and helps the sauce cling.
Browned breadcrumbs
Add a crisp, toasted texture to the finished surface.

The step that matters

Broil over a slow, clear fire. Turkey legs and wings are thick and dense, so a slow, steady heat lets the centre cook through before the outside browns too far. A fierce flame chars the skin while the meat stays underdone.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, mustard, pepper, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, mustard, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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