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To Boil a Turkey

A boiled turkey stuffed with bread, butter, cream, oysters, and egg yolks, served with drawn butter and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

  1. Make a stuffing with chopped bread, butter, cream, oysters, and egg yolks.

  2. Sew the stuffing into the turkey.

  3. Dredge flour over the turkey.

Boil

  1. Place the turkey in a pot with cold water, ensuring it is fully covered.

  2. Add salt and bring to a simmer.

  3. Let it simmer for 2.5 hours, or less for a smaller turkey.

  4. Skim the surface while boiling.

Serve

  1. For a nicer presentation, wrap the turkey in a cloth dredged with flour.

  2. Serve with drawn butter mixed with some oysters.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Is the main cooked protein, becoming tender and firm as it simmers gently in water.
Chopped bread
Bulks out the stuffing and soaks up cream and butter to keep it soft.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the stuffing and drawn butter a smooth, savoury flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the stuffing stay soft and cohesive.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing and the drawn butter sauce.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together and add richness as they set gently with heat.

The step that matters

Let it simmer for 2.5 hours, or less for a smaller turkey.. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil cooks the turkey evenly and keeps the meat tender. Too vigorous a boil toughens proteins and can break the bird apart, while a smaller bird needs less time to avoid drying out.

“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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