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Stuffing for Turkey

A savory mixture of stuffing, suet, veal, bread crumbs, herbs, onion, spices, and egg yolks used to fill a turkey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stuffing for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. In a mortar, mix the stuffing, suet, veal, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, onion, nutmeg, lemon peel, pepper, salt, and egg yolks until well combined.

Stuff and shape

  1. Stuff the mixture into the turkey and secure it with a skewer or thread.

  2. For balls or sausages, shape the mixture, dust with flour, and fry until golden brown.

  3. Alternatively, boil the balls in water for a few minutes if serving with white sauce.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture so it holds together when shaped or stuffed.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat, which keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Veal
Provides the meaty base that gives the stuffing its savory flavor.

The step that matters

Shaping and frying the balls. The mixture is loose and held together only by egg yolks, so it can crumble. Dusting with flour helps it hold its shape and form a golden crust when fried.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, bread, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, bread, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, lemon. 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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