Name: Turkey Warmed Over
Ingredients: cold turkey or chicken; butter; small thick slices of bread or biscuit; salt; hot water

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Turkey Warmed Over

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Warm pieces of cold turkey or chicken in a frying pan with a little butter.
Place the warmed turkey or chicken on a warm platter.

Assemble and serve

Dip small thick slices of bread or biscuit in hot salted water.
Surround the turkey or chicken with the dipped bread or biscuit.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold turkey or chicken: Provides the main protein, which is gently reheated to serve warm.
Butter: Adds fat to the frying pan, helping the meat warm evenly and gain flavor.
Small thick slices of bread or biscuit: Soaked in hot water, they soften and form a moist base for the meat.

“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.