Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Minced Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the cold turkey.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the milk, flour, butter, and salt to make a sauce.
Combine and serve
Add the minced turkey and oysters, if using, and heat everything together.
If there is a turkey leg, grill it and place it on top of the mixture.
Garnish with toasted bread or fried potatoes.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold turkey
- Provides the main body of the dish, becoming tender and savory when heated in the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce by gelatinizing its starch as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and smooth mouthfeel, and helps build the sauce's body.
The step that matters
Combine the flour and butter with the milk gradually. Flour must be cooked in the fat and whisked into the liquid so its starch swells evenly; adding it all at once or undercooking it leaves lumps and a raw, pasty taste.
“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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