Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Turkey, Pulled
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pulled turkey
Pull the meat from the turkey breast into pieces.
Warm the pulled turkey in a pan with white gravy and cream.
Add grated nutmeg, salt, flour, and butter; do not boil.
Broil and serve
Season and score the turkey leg, then broil it.
Serve the broiled leg alongside the pulled turkey.
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.
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together540 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Flour and butter 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 breast meat
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the pulled texture.
- White gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor so the pulled meat stays tender when warmed.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the warmed meat.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and gravy mixture so it clings to the meat.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
The step that matters
Add the flour, butter and nutmeg without boiling. Flour thickens the sauce only as it is heated gently; boiling a cream-based mixture can cause it to separate or turn grainy, and it can make the flour taste raw.
“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.
You might also like
Turkey Soup71 recipes
Meat Croquettes52 recipes
Meatballs37 recipes
Mince Meat37 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.