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Turkey with Oyster Forcemeat

Ensure the turkey is perfectly sweet and not freshly killed for tenderness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turkey with Oyster Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Truss the turkey by drawing the legs into the body and breaking the breastbone for a plump appearance.

  2. Place the turkey in a large pot of warm water and skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Boil gently for 1.5 to 2.25 hours, depending on the size of the turkey.

  4. Serve with oyster sauce if using oyster forcemeat, or with celery sauce or white sauce.

  5. For a family dinner, substitute with parsley and butter or a delicate cheek of bacon.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, oyster, parsley, butter, sauce, ham):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, oyster, parsley, butter, sauce, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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