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Galantine of Turkey

A cold turkey galantine made with forcemeat, layers of turkey, tongue, ham, truffles, nuts, gherkins, and bacon, served with strained jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Galantine of Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the gills from the turkey and draw the sinews from the legs.

  2. Remove the meat from the legs and breast.

  3. Mince the veal and bacon.

  4. Pound the minced veal and bacon together with salt, pepper, spices, and herbs to make a forcemeat.

Assemble

  1. Lay the turkey skin on a linen cloth.

  2. Spread a layer of forcemeat about 1 inch thick over the skin.

  3. Add layers of turkey meat, tongue, ham, truffles, almonds, pistachios, and gherkins until the skin is nearly full.

  4. Finish with another layer of forcemeat.

  5. Close the skin and secure it tightly.

  6. Cover with slices of bacon.

  7. Roll the wrapped turkey in the cloth and tie the ends securely.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook in a manner similar to 'Le Dinde en Daube' for about 4 hours.

  2. Serve cold with strained jelly.

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. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 galantine and supplies the lean meat layers.
Fillet of veal
Adds tenderness and moisture to the forcemeat so it stays soft when sliced.
Fat bacon
Adds fat to the forcemeat, keeping the lean meats moist during cooking.
Slices of bacon
Wrapped over the outside, it bastes the skin and adds savory flavor as it cooks.
Slices of tongue
Adds savory flavor and a firm, sliceable texture inside the roll.

The step that matters

Securing the skin and cloth before cooking. If the skin is loosely closed or the cloth is not tied tightly, the roll can open or lose its shape during the long cooking, and juices and filling can escape.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, veal, meat, pepper, ham, truffle, pistachio):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, veal, meat, pepper, ham, truffle, pistachio. 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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