Why it works: Turkey and meat work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 540 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the turkey
Remove the sinews from the turkey legs.
Twist the head under the wing.
Stuff the turkey with oysters or anchovy, butter, and egg.
Boil the turkey in a floured cloth to keep it white.
Make the sauce
Prepare a rich oyster sauce with butter, cream, and soy sauce.
Roast and serve
Baste the turkey well while roasting.
Serve with gravy and plenty of bread sauce.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Turkey + meattop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together540 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + oystertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,175 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,592 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
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and the sauce.
- Egg
- Binds the stuffing so it holds together during cooking.
- Cream
- Adds richness and smoothness to the oyster sauce.
- Soy sauce
- Adds savoury depth and saltiness to the oyster sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the turkey in a floured cloth to keep it white. Wrapping the bird in a floured cloth before cooking helps protect the surface and keep the meat pale. Careful handling keeps the skin intact and the flour coating even.
“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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