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Boned Turkey

A boned turkey stuffed with cracker crumbs, eggs, oysters, and seasonings, then steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and pepper work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boned Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing cracker crumbs, eggs, oysters, summer savory, pepper, and salt.

Bone and stuff the turkey

  1. Carefully remove the legs and wings from the turkey without breaking the skin.

  2. Remove all bones from the turkey, starting with the legs and working along the back and breast.

  3. Stuff the turkey from the neck, filling the wings, breast, body, and legs.

  4. Sew the skin securely to prevent stuffing from escaping.

Steam and press

  1. Season the outside with salt and pepper, then steam the turkey until tender, about 4 to 5 hours for an older turkey.

  2. Press the turkey with a tin plate and flat irons until cool, then slice thinly.

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. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Oyster + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pepper + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Summer savory + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together inside the bird.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Oysters
Add briny flavor and a soft, savory texture to the stuffing.
Turkey
Provides the main body that is steamed until tender and then pressed.

The step that matters

Sewing the skin closed. If the skin is torn or loosely sewn, the stuffing can escape during steaming and the bird can cook unevenly. Sew firmly, keeping the skin intact before steaming.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, pepper, turkey. 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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