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Turkey-cock a LA Bourgeoise

A roasted turkey cooked with veal, bacon, broth, and bouquet garni, then served with the strained sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Turkey-cock a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the turkey as for roasting, without stuffing.

  2. Brown the turkey with butter by roasting it before the fire.

Stew

  1. Lay the turkey on its back in a deep stew-pan with a few slices of veal at the bottom.

  2. Cover the turkey with slices of bacon and stew over a very slow fire.

  3. Moisten with broth or stock and season with bouquet garni, pepper, and salt.

Serve

  1. Strain the sauce, skim off the fat, and pour it over the turkey when serving.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turkey + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 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

Turkey
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist stewing.
Butter
Browns the turkey's skin, adding colour and a rich, roasted flavour.
Veal
Lies under the bird and adds savoury depth to the braising liquid.
Bacon
Covers the turkey and releases fat and smoky flavour into the slow-cooked meat.
Broth or stock
Moistens the pot and forms the base of the sauce that is later strained and served.

The step that matters

Stew over a very slow fire. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue soften without the liquid boiling hard, which would toughen the meat and reduce the sauce unevenly.

“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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