Name: Turkey, to Boil
Ingredients: 1 turkey poult; Veal seasoning; White sauce; Parsley; Butter; Oyster sauce; Lemon

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Stuff the turkey poult with veal seasoning.
Boil the turkey poult for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
For a large turkey, boil for 2 hours or more.

Serve

Serve with white sauce, parsley and butter, or oyster sauce.
Garnish with lemon.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 poult: Provides the main protein, which becomes firm and tender as it cooks through in simmering water.
Veal seasoning: Flavors the meat from inside as it stuffs the cavity and cooks.
White sauce: Adds moisture and a smooth, rich coating to the cooked turkey.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the serving sauce or over the turkey.

“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.