Name: Turkey Patties
Ingredients: Turkey (white meat, minced); Grated lemon; Nutmeg; Coarse sea salt; White pepper; Cream; Butter (softened)

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Mince the white part of the turkey.
In a bowl, combine the minced turkey with grated lemon, nutmeg, coarse sea salt, white pepper, cream, and softened butter.
Fill the patties with the mixture.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,375 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, lemon, nutmeg, cream, butter):

Thymefits better
Sagefits better
Parsleyfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, lemon, nutmeg, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.