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Deviled Turkey

A dish of chopped turkey dark meat mixed with a butter, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, Tabasco dressing and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Deviled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the drumsticks to the bone with a sharp knife and add other dark meat, chopped not too fine.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the butter, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and Tabasco.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the dressing hot over the turkey several hours before serving.

  2. Heat and pour the dressing over the turkey again before serving.

  3. Add the gravy, giblets, and turkey stuffing to the sauce. Dark meat is preferable.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Meat + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + turkeytop 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

Dark meat
Has more fat and connective tissue, so it stays moist and tender under hot dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, coating mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing a sharp, tangy edge.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the butter and vinegar into a smoother sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, salty depth to the dressing.

The step that matters

Pouring the dressing hot. Hot liquid spreads the melted butter and vinegar over the meat and carries seasoning into the surface. Pouring it again just before serving keeps the meat moist and the sauce warm.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, vinegar, sauce, turkey):

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, vinegar, sauce, turkey. 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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