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Boiled Turkey

A boiled turkey stuffed with bread crumbs, butter or marrow, parsley, oysters, and optional ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Boiled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the cleaned turkey in a large pot and cover with water.

  2. Heat the pot over a clear fire, avoiding too fierce a flame.

Stuff and cook

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing stale bread crumbs, butter or marrow, parsley, and oysters.

  2. Stuff the turkey with the mixture and add chopped ham if desired.

  3. Simmer the turkey for 2.5 hours for a large fowl, 2 hours for a smaller one, or 1 hour and 10 to 40 minutes for very small turkeys.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 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 cooked protein, becoming tender through slow simmering in water.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and butter in the stuffing, giving it body and a softer texture.
Butter or marrow
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stuffing and keeping it moist.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Keep the heat gentle while the turkey simmers. A clear, moderate heat keeps the water at a gentle simmer. A fierce boil toughens the meat's proteins and can break the skin and cook the outside faster than the centre.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, oyster, ham. 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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