Name: Turkey with Chestnuts
Ingredients: 1 turkey; 2 to 3 lbs chestnuts; 1 to 1½ lbs sausage meat or veal forcemeat; 3 to 4 slices of bacon; 1 pint stock; 1 pint good gravy or brown sauce; 2 oz butter; 1 egg; a little cream or milk; salt and pepper

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turkey + chestnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chestnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together826 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

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

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

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, sauce, butter, egg, cream, pepper):

Chestnutthe original
Walnutfits about as well
Beansfits about as well
Almondfits less well

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

Turkey with Chestnuts