Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Boiled Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turkey
Clean the turkey well after singeing and draw the sinews.
Truss the turkey with the legs out for easy carving.
Prepare the stuffing by mixing stale bread crumbs, marrow or butter, parsley, and cleaned oysters.
Stuff the turkey with the mixture and add chopped ham if desired.
Boil
Place the turkey in a large pot and cover it with clean water.
Heat the pot over a clear fire, but avoid a fierce flame.
Skim the surface constantly and simmer for 2.5 hours for a large turkey, 2 hours for a smaller one, or 1 hour and 10 to 40 minutes for very small turkeys.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
-
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 and provides the meat and broth flavour.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together.
- Marrow or butter
- Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and flavourful.
- Oysters
- Add a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing.
The step that matters
Skim the surface constantly while simmering. Foam and scum rise as the water heats and can cloud the broth and taint the flavour. Keeping the heat gentle avoids a fierce boil that would toughen the meat and churn the impurities back in.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham):
- Thymefits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham. 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.
More boiled turkey recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Turkey Soup71 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.