Skip to main content
Main

Fillets of Turkey

Grilled turkey fillets coated in a chutney, butter, anchovy sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fillets of Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of dressed turkey legs and slice it into 1-inch thick pieces.

  2. Mix chutney, melted butter, anchovy sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt into a paste.

  3. Spread the paste over the turkey slices.

  4. Wrap each slice in white buttered paper.

Grill and serve

  1. Place the wrapped slices on a grill over a clear fire, moving them frequently to prevent scorching.

  2. Cook for about 15 minutes, then remove from the paper and serve on a hot dish.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Turkey + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together83 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey legs
Provide the lean meat that is cooked and served as the main component.
Melted butter
Adds moisture and richness, helping the meat stay tender and browning in the heat.
Chutney
Adds sweetness and acidity that flavour the paste coating the turkey.
Anchovy sauce
Adds savoury depth and salty umami flavour to the paste.

The step that matters

Moving the slices on the grill. Frequent turning keeps the coating from burning over direct heat while the meat cooks through. Sugars in the chutney can scorch quickly, so constant movement helps the paste brown evenly rather than char.

“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.

You might also like

Turkey SoupTurkey Soup71 recipesTurkey StuffingTurkey Stuffing26 recipesTurkey DressingTurkey Dressing24 recipesTurkey PattiesTurkey Patties12 recipes