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Braised Turkey

Braised turkey covered with pork slices, simmered with vegetables and stock, then browned and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Braised Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Cover the turkey with slices of pork and tie it with cord to keep its shape.

  2. Place 4 slices of pork in a braising pan and put the stuffed turkey on top.

  3. Add the giblets, onions, cloves, carrots, parsnip, bay leaves, salt, and pepper around the turkey.

  4. Almost cover the turkey with stock and cover the pan tightly.

Braise and finish

  1. Simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours, depending on the size of the turkey.

  2. If serving hot, brown the turkey in the oven or with hot coals on the lid.

  3. Remove the vegetables and boil the gravy down rapidly, skimming off the fat.

  4. Garnish with boiled carrot and turnip cut into fancy shapes or fried small sausages.

  5. Strain part of the gravy, stir in brown thickening, and pour it over the turkey.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main dish; slow braising keeps the meat tender and moist.
Pork
Slices laid over the turkey add fat that bastes the meat as it cooks.
Stock
Liquid that gently cooks the turkey and becomes the base of the gravy.
Onions
Release sweetness and flavour into the braising liquid as they soften.
Brown thickening
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the turkey.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours. A rolling boil toughens the meat and dries it out. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue break down slowly, so the turkey stays tender and moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork, clove, carrot, parsnip, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork, clove, carrot, parsnip, pepper. 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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