Name: Boiled Turkey and Celery Sauce
Ingredients: 1 whole turkey; celery; water; salt; pepper

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Turkey and Celery Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey by cleaning it thoroughly.
Place the turkey in a large pot and cover with water.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until cooked through.
Meanwhile, prepare the celery sauce by cooking chopped celery in water until tender.
Serve the turkey with the celery sauce on the side.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).