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Boiled Turkey

A large turkey is boiled with salt, vegetables, herbs, and spices, then served with a thick white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Boiled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Truss the turkey by pushing the legs up, cutting a slit in each side, and drawing the legs into the body.

  2. Stuff the inside with oyster forcemeat or chestnuts.

  3. Bind the stuffed turkey into shape with tape and dust with flour.

Boil

  1. Place the turkey in a large pot and cover it with warm water.

  2. Add salt, carrot, onion, cloves, peppercorns, celery, and bouquet of herbs.

  3. Bring the pot to a boil, then simmer gently for 2 hours, skimming off any scum that rises.

  4. Drain the turkey briefly.

Sauce and serve

  1. Prepare a thick white sauce or béchamel using some of the cooking water.

  2. Pour the sauce over the turkey to mask it and serve with oyster sauce, celery sauce, Hollandaise, or parsley sauce.

  3. Garnish with forcemeat balls, crisp bacon rolls, or lemon and parsley.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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, becoming moist and tender as it simmers gently in water.
Oyster forcemeat or chestnuts (in the method)
Fills the cavity, adding flavour and moisture to the bird as it cooks.
Thick white sauce or béchamel
Coats the turkey with a rich, creamy layer that adds moisture and mild flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering gently after the boil. A rolling boil toughens turkey muscle and breaks up the bird, while gentle simmering cooks it evenly and keeps it tender. Skimming removes scum that would cloud the broth and flavour the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, carrot, clove, celery, flour, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, carrot, clove, celery, flour, sauce. 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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