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To Stew Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with livers, mushrooms, bacon, and herbs, then stewed and served with a reduced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

To Stew Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Bone the turkey.

  2. Fill the carcass with a mixture of livers, mushrooms, bacon, salt, spices, parsley, and onions.

  3. Sew the turkey up.

  4. Shape the turkey nicely.

  5. Place a thin slice of bacon on the breast.

  6. Wrap the turkey in a cloth.

Stew and make the sauce

  1. Stew it in a pot with broth, white wine, and sweet herbs.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan.

  3. Remove the fat.

  4. Reduce the liquid to a sauce by adding coulis.

Finish and serve

  1. Unwrap the turkey.

  2. Remove the bacon.

  3. Dry off excess grease.

  4. Serve with the 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. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Turkey + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 by stewing to stay moist and tender.
Livers
Add richness and a soft, moist texture to the stuffing.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the stuffing.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid, helping build the sauce flavour.
Coulis
Thickens and flavours the cooking liquid as it reduces into a sauce.

The step that matters

Reduce the liquid to a sauce by adding coulis. Reducing concentrates flavour and thickens the liquid as water evaporates. Adding coulis too early or boiling too hard can make the sauce reduce unevenly or taste heavy, so it should simmer gently until lightly coating a spoon.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, liver, mushroom, onion, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, liver, mushroom, onion, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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