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Zagorska Purica s Mlincima (Turkey with Baked Flatbread Sheets)

Zagorska Purica s Mlincima (Turkey with Baked Flatbread Sheets) reads richness 9.8, umami 9.6 and salinity 6.7 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Croatian main, about 28 hr 27 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 10.0 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 1.4 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.7 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 4.3 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 10.0 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 3.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 9.8 · Umami 9.6 · Salinity 6.7 · Smoke 4.0 · Herbaceous 3.1 · Warm Spice 1.8 · Floral 1.3 · Sweetness 1.3 · Bitterness 1.1 · Earthy 0.9 · Heat 0.7 · Citrus 0.7 · Allium 0.6

What's in it (11)

• turkey with skin — 4000 g
• pork lard — 100 g
• salt — 20 g
• freshly ground black pepper — 15 g
• rosemary — 2 g
• water — 500 g
• mlinci — 500 g
• water — 2000 g
• bacon — 150 g
• sweet paprika — 5 g
• chicken stock — 200 g

Time & effort: about 28 hr 27 min (4 hr 2 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 51.8 kcal, 3.4 g protein, 3.9 g fat, 0.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (11 steps)

1. Salt the bird inside and out and leave it uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours. Dry-salting ahead seasons the meat properly and dries the skin, which is what lets it crisp.
2. Rub the lard all over the skin, grind the pepper over it and tuck the rosemary into the cavity.
3. Set the turkey on a rack in a deep roasting tin, pour the 500 ml of water into the tin, and roast at 160C for 3 hours 20 minutes.
4. Baste every 30 minutes with the fat and juices from the tin. The mlinci depend on those drippings, so do not pour them off.
5. Twenty minutes before the bird is done, break the mlinci into rough pieces the size of a hand, put them in a bowl and pour the boiling water over. Leave them 3 minutes only, until they are pliable but not falling apart. Mlinci are thin sheets of unleavened dough baked dry and then stored; they are sold in every Croatian shop, and no pasta is a real stand-in because they are already baked.
6. Drain them well.
7. Lift the turkey onto a board. Render the diced bacon in the roasting tin over medium heat for 6 minutes in the turkey fat.
8. Toss the drained mlinci in the tin with the paprika and the stock until every piece is coated in fat and juices.
9. Return the tin to the oven at 200C for 15 minutes, until the top layer has crisped and gone brown at the edges while the layers underneath stay soft. That contrast is the whole point.
10. Rest the turkey 25 minutes, carve it, and serve on the mlinci. This is the Sunday and Christmas dish of the Zagorje hills north of Zagreb.
11. Substitutions: unsalted butter can stand in for the pork lard; turkey stock can stand in for the chicken stock.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding — British
• Yorkshire Pudding — British
• Kalakukko (Rye-Crusted Fish and Pork Loaf) — Finnish
• Cajun Pinto Beans — Cajun/Creole
• Tex-Mex Migas — Tex-Mex

Keep reading: what richness, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.