Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Boil a Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a stuffing by mixing chopped bread, butter, cream, oysters, and egg yolks.
Stuff the turkey and sew it closed.
Dredge the turkey with flour.
Boil
Place the turkey in a pot with enough cold water to cover it and add salt.
Bring to a simmer and cook for 2.5 hours, skimming occasionally.
Wrap the turkey in a cloth dredged with flour for a nicer presentation.
Serve
Serve with drawn butter mixed with some oysters.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked through by simmering.
- Chopped bread
- Bulks out the stuffing and soaks up the butter, cream, and yolks.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the stuffing and help it set as it cooks.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the stuffing.
- Oysters
- Add a salty, savoury flavour to the stuffing and the serving butter.
The step that matters
Skimming during the simmer. Foam and impurities rise to the surface of the simmering water and can cloud the liquid and taint the flavour. Skimming occasionally keeps the water clean and the turkey tasting fresh.
“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.
More boiled turkey recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Turkey Soup71 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.