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Boiled Turkey

A whole turkey boiled and reheated, then finished with butter and optional oyster or liver garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Boiled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stuff the turkey as usual.

  2. Place the turkey in a kettle and cover it completely with boiling water.

  3. Remove the turkey and replace the boiling water with tepid water.

Cook

  1. Heat slowly until boiling, then transfer to a cooker.

  2. When reheating, add salt and peppercorns.

  3. Cook until tender, then place on a platter.

Finish and serve

  1. Spread butter over the turkey and place in the oven until melted.

  2. Serve with drawn butter sauce filled with oysters or chopped liver and giblets.

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. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Oyster + livertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together179 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
Is the main protein, becoming tender through slow simmering in water.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished turkey and the sauce.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the optional drawn butter sauce.

The step that matters

Heat slowly until boiling. Bringing the water up gently keeps the meat from toughening and drying out. Rapid boiling tightens muscle proteins and can make the turkey tough, so the gentle heating helps it cook evenly and stay tender.

“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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