Name: Turkey with Oysters
Ingredients: 1 good white turkey; oyster sauce; stuffing (as directed for turkeys when roasted)

Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turkey with Oysters

Ingredients

1 good white turkey
oyster sauce
stuffing (as directed for turkeys when roasted)

Directions

Truss the turkey for boiling with the feet turned up like a fowl.
Tie it gently in a braising or stock pot.
Remove it a few minutes before serving to drain the liquid.
Take out the skewers and packthread used for trussing.
Place the turkey on a large dish and pour plenty of oyster sauce over it.
Stuff the crop with the prepared stuffing.

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.

Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Turkey + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together531 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).