Name: Sauce for Boiled Turkey or Capon
Ingredients: raw oysters; 2 tablespoons fresh butter; 1 cup stale bread crumbs; 1 quart new milk; a few black peppercorns; 1 egg yolk; ½ cup fresh cream; strong veal gravy (for serving)

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Sauce for Boiled Turkey or Capon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the turkey

Pluck, singe, and truss the turkey or capon.
Stuff it with raw oysters, fresh butter, and stale bread crumbs.
Wrap the turkey in a clean cloth and place it in a saucepan of cold water.
Boil over moderate heat until cooked through.

Make the sauce

Chop the celery very small and add it to a quart of new milk in a saucepan.
Add black peppercorns and boil gently until reduced to one pint, stirring frequently.
Thicken the mixture with the beaten egg yolk and fresh cream.

Serve

Serve with strong veal gravy.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw oysters: Adds a briny, savoury flavour that seasons the turkey from inside as it cooks.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the stuffing and meat stay tender.
Stale bread crumbs: Soak up juices and butter, giving the stuffing body and moisture.
New milk: Forms the base of the sauce, which reduces to a thicker, more concentrated liquid.
Egg yolk: Thickens the sauce as its proteins set with gentle heat, adding richness.
Fresh cream: Adds fat and smoothness, giving the sauce a silky texture.

The step that matters

Thickening with the egg yolk. Egg yolk proteins set at about 65 to 70 °C and scramble if the hot liquid boils after it is added. Whisk a little hot sauce into the beaten yolk and cream first, then stir it back in over gentle heat without boiling.

“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.