Name: Turkey a LA Flamande, Or, Dinde Poudrée
Ingredients: 1 fine, well-kept hen turkey; ½ cup coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon pounded sugar; equal parts choice sausage meat and bread crumbs soaked in boiling milk or cream; grated rind of 1 large lemon; nutmeg, to taste; mace, to taste; cayenne, to taste; fine herbs, to taste; fine bread crumbs, for coating; plenty of parsley, finely chopped; juice of 2 lemons; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard; 1 teaspoon pounded sugar; oil, to taste; salt, to taste

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, and its meat is the bulk that the stuffing and sauce accompany.
Sausage meat: Adds richness and fat, keeping the stuffing moist and savoury as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Soak up milk or cream to give the stuffing a soft, moist texture that holds together.
Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the turkey and seasons the meat during the long resting period.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the cold sauce and balances the rich oil.
Oil: Adds fat to the sauce, mellowing the sharpness of the lemon juice and mustard.

The step that matters

Boil the turkey gently. Boiling at a hard rolling simmer can toughen the meat and split the cloth and sewing. A gentle heat cooks the stuffed bird evenly and keeps the flesh tender and moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, sugar, meat, lemon, nutmeg, bread, parsley):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, sugar, meat, lemon, nutmeg, bread, parsley. 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.

Turkey a LA Flamande, Or, Dinde Poudrée