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Turkey Trussed for Boil

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turkey Trussed for Boil

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Select a young, plump, freshly-killed hen turkey.

  2. Inspect truffles, discarding any that are moldy. Wash and scrub them clean.

  3. Cut about 1 pound of truffles into 1.5-inch balls.

  4. Pound the remaining truffles with the trimmings and an equal weight of fat bacon until smooth.

  5. Season the forcemeat with salt, grated nutmeg, and pepper.

  6. Mix the whole truffles into the forcemeat and stuff the turkey.

  7. Hang the stuffed turkey for 5-6 days before roasting.

  8. Before roasting, place a slice of fat bacon on the turkey's breast and cover with buttered paper.

  9. Baste the turkey liberally while roasting.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  4. Truffle + turkeytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, turkey, pepper, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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

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