Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Boil a Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the stuffing by mixing chopped bread, butter, cream, oysters, and egg yolks.
Sew the stuffing into the turkey.
Dredge flour over the turkey.
Boil and serve
Place the turkey in a pot with cold water and add salt, making sure the water covers the turkey well.
Simmer for 2.5 hours, skimming occasionally.
For a nicer appearance, wrap the turkey in a cloth dredged with flour.
Serve with drawn butter.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked through by simmering in water.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the stuffing and help it hold together as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour in the stuffing and the served drawn butter.
- Flour
- Dusted on the turkey and cloth to give a light coating and a more finished appearance.
The step that matters
Keep the turkey fully submerged while simmering. Any part left above the water cooks unevenly, so the meat can be dry in some places and underdone in others. Covering the bird well keeps heat even throughout.
“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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