Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Boned Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Dust the inside of the boned turkey with salt and pepper.
Layer sausage meat, mushrooms, chopped chicken, tongue, and parsley inside the turkey.
Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, mixing remaining materials to fill the wings and legs.
Bring the sides of the skin together to form a round shape and sew it up.
Turn the turkey over, tuck back the wings, and fasten them.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Turkey + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together205 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together540 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, mushroom, meat, pepper):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, mushroom, meat, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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