Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the skin from the turkey legs and neck, then wash and dry the turkey thoroughly.
Fill the breast with your choice of forcemeat.
Truss the turkey by drawing the legs into the body and breaking the breastbone for a plump appearance.
Cook
Place the turkey in a pot with enough warm water to cover it by an inch.
Bring the water to a boil for 10 minutes, then cool it down by adding cold water.
Remove excess water, leaving enough to keep the turkey covered until ready to serve.
Skim off any scum that rises to the surface and simmer gently for 1.5 to 2.25 hours.
Serve
Serve with oyster sauce, celery sauce, or white sauce, and optionally accompany with boiled tongue, ham, or bacon.
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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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together360 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together431 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Is the main cooked meat, and simmering gently keeps its flesh tender and moist.
- Forcemeat
- Fills the breast, adding moisture and flavour to the lean meat as it cooks.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil, then cool with cold water. Brief boiling sets the surface and skims impurities, then adding cold water lowers the heat so the turkey simmers gently instead of toughening. Keeping the turkey covered in liquid prevents it from drying out.
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, oyster, sauce, ham, parsley, butter):
- Capersfits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
- Celerythe original
- Sagefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, oyster, sauce, ham, parsley, butter. 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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