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Fillets of Turkey with Rice

Fillets of turkey coated in egg and cracker crumbs, fried and served over rice cooked with stock, onion juice, butter, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Fillets of Turkey with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Skin the turkey breast and slice it into uniform pieces, about ½ inch thick.

  2. Dip each slice in beaten egg, then in salted and peppered cracker crumbs, and repeat the process.

  3. Set the coated fillets on ice while cooking the rice.

Cook the rice

  1. In a saucepan, combine chicken stock, rice, onion juice, and salt; simmer until the liquid is absorbed.

  2. Once the rice is tender, stir in butter and cheese, then cover and keep warm.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat salad oil in a frying pan until hot, then fry the fillets until golden brown.

  2. Mound the savory rice in the center of a hot dish and arrange the fillets around it.

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. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turkey breast
Forms the main protein; slicing it into even pieces gives uniform cooking.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the turkey so the coating adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating when fried in oil.
Rice
Absorbs the stock as it simmers, becoming the savory base dish.
Chicken or turkey stock
Cooks the rice and flavours it as the liquid is absorbed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the rice a smooth, savory finish.

The step that matters

Fry the coated fillets in hot oil. Oil must be hot before the fillets go in; otherwise the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy rather than crisp and golden brown.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, egg, pepper, chicken, rice, butter, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, egg, pepper, chicken, rice, butter, cheese. 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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