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Mock Turkey

A slow‑cooked mutton leg stuffed with turkey dressing and flavored with tomato ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and tomato work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 90 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Mock Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton or ask your butcher to do it.

  2. Fill the cavity with turkey dressing.

Braise

  1. Place the mutton in a deep pan half filled with water.

  2. Cover tightly with another pan.

  3. Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least three hours, basting frequently.

  4. Remove the cover.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour off the liquid.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Skim the fat off the liquid.

  4. Return the liquid to the pan.

  5. Let the meat brown, basting often.

  6. Add the tomato ketchup to the gravy before serving.

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. Turkey + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + turkeytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together75 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + tomatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together452 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Tomato + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together754 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mutton + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat, which is cooked until tender and browned to stand in for turkey.
Turkey dressing
Fills the cavity, adding savory flavor and moisture to the meat as it cooks.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Covered oven cooking with basting. The lid traps steam so the lean meat cooks through gently without drying, and regular basting keeps the surface moist. Browning only happens after the liquid is removed and the meat is basted, so skipping that stage leaves it pale.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turkey, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turkey, ketchup. 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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