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To Boil Turkey

A method of boiling a turkey with a bread and herb stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Boil Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the strings or sinews from the turkey's thighs.

  2. Make a stuffing with bread, herbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon peel, oysters or anchovy, butter, suet, and egg.

  3. Stuff the mixture into the turkey's crop and secure the skin.

Boil and serve

  1. Prepare a clean pot with enough water to cover the turkey.

  2. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  4. Cook a small turkey for 1.5 hours and a large one for 2 hours or more.

  5. Serve with oyster sauce made with butter, cream, and soy sauce, or liver and lemon sauce.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in simmering water until done.
Bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing a soft, crumbly structure.
Egg
Binds the stuffing ingredients together so they hold their shape.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the stuffing and keeps it moist during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the stuffing for a softer texture and flavor.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Impurities and foam that rise while water comes to a boil can cloud the liquid and spoil the flavor of the bird. Removing them keeps the simmer clean.

“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.

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