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Devilled Turkey

A dish of grilled turkey legs seasoned with mustard, salt, cayenne, and served with cold butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and butter 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 ↓

Devilled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Score the turkey legs lengthwise to the bone.

  2. Press the mustard, salt, and cayenne into the scored areas.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the legs over a bright, clear fire until crisp and brown, about 7 to 8 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately with small pieces of cold butter on top.

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

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

  2. Turkey + mustardtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Legs of cold turkey
Provide the main meat, which is cooked over fire until the outside crisps and browns.
Made mustard
Adds sharp flavour and spreads into the scored cuts, seasoning the meat from within.
Cold butter
Melts over the hot legs, adding richness and moisture to the serving.

The step that matters

Grill over a bright, clear fire until crisp and brown. Scored, mustard-coated meat can dry out or burn if the fire is too uneven or cooking runs too long. Hot, steady heat browns the surface and crisps the skin while the interior stays moist.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter. 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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