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Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey with lard, bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and sweet marjoram, baked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Rub the turkey well with lard, then season with pepper and salt.

  2. Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, butter, lard, pepper, salt, and sweet marjoram.

  3. Stuff the turkey with the dressing.

Roast

  1. Place the turkey in a pan with a little hot water.

  2. Baste frequently while roasting.

  3. Roast a small turkey for 1.5 hours in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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 + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Bread + marjoramtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks through to become tender meat.
Lard
Adds fat that coats the skin and helps it brown during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and fat to form a soft, moist stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, improving flavor and moisture.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a mild, aromatic herbal flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Baste frequently while roasting. Spooning pan juices over the turkey keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, while the stuffing and meat cook through.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

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

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