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Turkey, Braised, Plain

Braised turkey with vegetables, ham, herbs, and optional sherry, served with thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and sherry work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43 recipes. Both carry hexyl acetate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Turkey, Braised, Plain

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a pan, combine sliced vegetables, fat ham, giblets, cloves, peppercorns, and herbs.

  3. Add sherry and cover with buttered paper.

  4. Cover the pan and let it sit for 30 minutes, shaking occasionally.

Braise

  1. Add stock to cover the turkey and cook for 2 to 5 hours, depending on the size of the bird.

  2. Once cooked, remove the fat ham and glaze the breast.

  3. If necessary, use a salamander to brown the turkey.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Skim and reduce the gravy, thickening it with roux.

  2. Pour some gravy over the turkey and serve the rest separately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Turkey + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  2. Sherry + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,237 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Sherry + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Turkey + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Turkey + clovetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Is the main meat that becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Roux
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy by swelling with starch.
Fat ham
Adds savory fat and salty flavor that seasons the braising liquid and meat.
Giblets
Add rich, deep meaty flavor to the stock and gravy.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic sweetness that brighten the savory braising liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking time for the braise. Cooking time depends on the bird's size, and the turkey is tender when collagen in connective tissue has slowly broken down in moist heat. Too short leaves the meat tough; too long dries it out and stringy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, sherry, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, sherry, ham. 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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