Skip to main content
Main

Deviled Turkey

A simple dish of turkey legs and wings simmered with water, salt, pepper, butter, mustard, and optional dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Join the legs and wings of the turkey.

  2. Place them in a baking pan with water, salt, pepper, butter, and mustard.

  3. Add dressing if desired.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, basting frequently.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turkey + mustardtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Legs and wings of turkey
Provide the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown as it cooks.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the meat and butter.
Water
Creates moisture in the pan, which helps keep the turkey from drying out.

The step that matters

Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, basting frequently. Basting spreads the pan liquids over the surface of the turkey, which keeps the meat moist and helps the outside brown evenly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, butter. 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.

More deviled turkey recipes

Legs 6Leg 3 See all 20 →

You might also like

Turkey SoupTurkey Soup71 recipesTurkey StuffingTurkey Stuffing26 recipesTurkey DressingTurkey Dressing24 recipesTurkey PattiesTurkey Patties12 recipes