Why it works: Turkey and chestnut work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 136 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Turkey, Roasted
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the breast-bone from the turkey, leaving it attached at the tip.
Fill the body with veal sausage meat mixed with oysters.
Stuff the breast with creamy chestnut forcemeat.
Use strings and skewers to shape the bird, then cover it entirely with greased paper.
Lay sliced bacon on the breast.
Cook the turkey until done, then garnish with fried oysters and small sausages made from the filling.
Serve with oyster sauce or brown gravy.
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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Turkey + chestnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together540 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Turkey + vealtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Meat + oystertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together536 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the chestnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, veal, meat, oyster):
- Chestnutthe original
- Peasfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Beansfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, veal, meat, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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