Why it works: Turkey and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 830 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Boiled Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fill the turkey with oyster stuffing and tie the legs and wings close to the body.
Place the turkey breast down in salted boiling water.
Boil
Skim the water often and boil for about 2 hours, but do not let the skin break.
If desired, roll the turkey in a cloth dipped in flour, but note this may affect the flavor of the broth.
Serve and save
Serve with oyster or celery sauce.
Boil a piece of salted pork and serve a thin slice on each plate.
Optionally, use bacon or ham instead of pork.
Save the broth for soup by adding seasonings similar to chicken soup.
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 + porktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together830 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Oyster + porktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,255 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Pork + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together360 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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 dish, cooked gently in water until tender.
- Oyster stuffing
- Fills the bird and adds moisture and savory flavor as the turkey cooks.
- Salt pork
- Adds savory, salty flavor to the dish and to the cooking water.
The step that matters
Skim the water and keep it at a gentle boil. Skimming removes foam and impurities so the broth stays clear. A vigorous boil can break the skin and toughen the meat, so a gentle simmer keeps the bird intact and tender.
“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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