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Turkey, Blanquette of

A creamy turkey stew made with stock, butter, flour, egg yolk, cream, onion, mace, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Turkey, Blanquette of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the turkey into neat slices and set aside.

  2. Put the bones, trimmings, onion, mace, salt, and pepper into a stewpan, cover with cold water, and simmer gently for at least 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the flour to the butter and cook for a few minutes without browning.

  3. Add the stock to the butter and flour mixture, stir until boiling, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Season to taste and add a pinch of nutmeg.

Finish and serve

  1. Put in the slices of turkey and let them heat through without boiling.

  2. Mix the cream and yolk of egg together, add to the stewpan, and stir gently for about 5 minutes 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bound sauce.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in gently with cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture to the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if the sauce boils after it goes in, the yolk can scramble and curdle. Stir gently and keep the sauce below boiling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, flour, egg, cream, mace, nutmeg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, flour, egg, cream, mace, nutmeg. 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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