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Turkey Gelatine or Boned Turkey

A gelatinous turkey made by stuffing seasoned meat into the skin and simmering with bones and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey Gelatine or Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Dress the turkey without cutting the skin on the breast.

  2. Remove the neck, wings, and legs.

  3. Cut the turkey in half down the back and carefully remove the meat from the bones, keeping the skin whole.

  4. Chop the veal, cooked pork or bacon, and turkey leg meat finely.

  5. Season the chopped meat with pepper, salt, nutmeg, lemon peel, and parsley.

  6. Spread a layer of the force‑meat on the inside of the turkey skin.

  7. Add a layer of fillet cut into inch‑square pieces, seasoned with pepper and salt.

  8. Add a layer of dressed oysters, seasoned with pepper and salt.

  9. Add another layer of force‑meat.

  10. Roll up the turkey, sew it into shape, and tie it in clean netting.

Poach and set the jelly

  1. Place it in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover, along with the broken turkey bones, onion, cloves, carrots, celery, and red pepper.

  2. Remove scum as it rises.

  3. Boil slowly for four hours.

  4. Let it cool slightly.

  5. Tighten the cloth and place a light weight on it until cold and solid.

  6. Strain the liquid and clarify it.

  7. Return to the fire.

  8. Add sherry or lemon juice.

  9. Boil until it becomes a stiff jelly.

  10. Test the jelly by cooling a small amount on ice or a cold plate.

Serve

  1. Pour the warm jelly over the turkey in a deep dish.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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, with its meat rolled and layered around the filling.
Veal
Adds body and a tender texture to the chopped force-meat stuffing.
Pork or bacon
Adds fat and savoury richness to the force-meat, keeping it moist.
Oysters
Contributes a briny, savoury flavour to the inner layer.
Sherry or lemon juice
Adds acidity and flavour to the clarified stock before it sets.

The step that matters

Clarifying and boiling the jelly. Scum must be removed as it rises and the stock must be boiled to a stiff set. Gentle skimming keeps the jelly clear, and enough reduction gives it the gel strength to hold its shape when cold.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, veal, pork, meat, pepper, lemon, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, veal, pork, meat, pepper, lemon, parsley. 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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