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Turkey in Its Gravy

A turkey stewed in veal, butter, bacon, stock, salt, pepper, and fine herbs, served with its own gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and turkey are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Turkey in Its Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a stewpan with slices of veal and pieces of butter.

  2. Place the turkey in the pan, back side up.

  3. Cover the turkey with thin slices of bacon.

Stew and serve

  1. Moisten with stock and season with salt, pepper, and fine herbs.

  2. Stew over low heat.

  3. Strain the sauce, skim off the fat, and serve.

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. Butter + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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, cooking slowly in its own juices and stock.
Slices of veal
Lines the pan and adds savory body to the sauce as it stews.
Pieces of butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor into the sauce and the meat.
Slices of bacon
Covers the turkey, releasing fat and salty, smoky flavor during the slow stew.
Stock
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the turkey and forms the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew over low heat. Gentle, low heat lets the turkey cook through slowly and tender without the liquid boiling hard. Boiling can toughen the meat and reduce the stock too quickly, leaving a thin or bitter gravy.

“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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