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Turkey and Truffles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 167 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Turkey and Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the turkey two days in advance by stuffing it with green unpared truffles.

  2. Tie the neck and vent of the turkey and hang it until ready to cook.

  3. Clean the truffles with a hard brush, then thinly pare and trim them into a round shape.

  4. Grind the parings and trimmings in a mortar and mix them into the forcemeat to fill the cavity near the breast of the turkey.

  5. Roast the turkey as usual.

  6. Gently stew the prepared truffles in good stock or gravy, skimming well.

  7. When the liquid is nearly reduced, add highly seasoned cullis, a little Seville orange or lemon juice, sugar, and brandy.

  8. Serve the truffle sauce around the turkey.

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 + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Turkey + orangetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, truffle, sugar, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Currantfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, truffle, sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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