Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
To Boil a Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stuff the turkey with bread, butter, salt, pepper, and minced parsley.
Tie the legs and wings as for roasting.
Wrap the turkey in a cloth and sprinkle it well with flour.
Cook and serve
Boil for 40 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand with the lid on for 30 minutes before serving.
Serve with drawn butter and stewed oysters.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Turkey
- Is the main cooked meat, which the boiling cooks through and the standing period finishes.
- Bread
- Fills the cavity as a stuffing, absorbing juices and adding body to the bird.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and carries flavour through the meat.
- Flour
- Dusted over the cloth-wrapped bird, it forms a coating that helps hold in moisture during boiling.
The step that matters
Boil for 40 minutes. The turkey must be wrapped securely in the cloth and fully submerged so it cooks evenly. Boiling too hard can break up the floured coating and dry or toughen the outer meat, so a gentle simmer keeps it moist.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, pepper, flour):
- Sagefits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, pepper, flour. 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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