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Devilled Turkey Leg

A roasted or boiled turkey leg and thigh seasoned with salt, pepper, English mustard, and butter, then grilled or baked until hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Devilled Turkey Leg

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Score the turkey leg and thigh all over.

  2. Rub salt, pepper, English mustard, and butter into the cuts.

  3. Refrigerate overnight if serving for breakfast.

Heat and serve

  1. Place the leg on a hot grill or in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until thoroughly heated.

  2. Baste well with butter or sweet oil while heating.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg and thigh of roasted or boiled turkey
Provides the main meat, which is already cooked and only needs reheating.
English mustard
Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the deviled flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown and stay moist when basted.

The step that matters

Baste well with butter or sweet oil while heating. The turkey is already cooked, so the risk is drying it out while reheating. Fat basting coats the surface, slows moisture loss, and encourages browning.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, 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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