Why it works: Turkey and sherry work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43 recipes. Both carry hexyl acetate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
To Prepare a Turkey for Christmas Dinner
Ingredients
Directions
Coop the turkey and feed it well for several days before Christmas.
Three days before slaughtering, force 1 English walnut down its throat three times a day.
Give the turkey 1 glass of sherry once a day.
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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Turkey + sherrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43 recipes
Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).
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Walnut + sherrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together188 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Turkey + walnuttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, sherry):
- Chestnutfits better
- Peasfits better
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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