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Turkey a LA Flamande, Or, Dinde Poudree

A turkey seasoned with salt, sugar, sausage, and herbs, then boiled and coated with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey a LA Flamande, Or, Dinde Poudree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Thoroughly dry the turkey with a cloth; do not wash it.

  2. Sprinkle a little salt inside to draw out the blood; let it sit for a couple of hours, then drain and wipe it again.

  3. Rub the outside of the turkey with ½ cup coarse sea salt mixed with 1 tablespoon pounded sugar; turn it every day for four days.

Stuff and cook

  1. Fill the turkey with equal parts sausage meat and soaked bread crumbs; season with grated lemon rind, nutmeg, cayenne, and fine herbs.

  2. Sew the turkey securely, truss it, and roll it in a cloth, tying it at both ends.

  3. Boil gently for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. Once cooked, coat the turkey with fine bread crumbs mixed with chopped parsley.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with a sauce made from lemon juice, grated lemon rind, mustard, pounded sugar, and oil; mix until smooth.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, so its long, gentle cooking sets the meat through.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stuffing, keeping the filling moist as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk or cream, they absorb liquid and keep the stuffing soft and moist.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture from the turkey during the curing rub, seasoning and firming the meat.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that brightens the cold sauce and balances its richness and sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 3 to 4 hours. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil cooks the stuffed bird evenly and keeps the meat tender instead of tough and dry.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, sugar, meat, bread, lemon, pepper, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, sugar, meat, bread, lemon, pepper, parsley. 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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