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Brined Roast Turkey

A long soak in a seasoned saltwater brine ensures the turkey will emerge juicy and exceptionally delicious. The salt penetrates deep into the meat, drawing in moisture while adding layers of flavor. Our turkey brine combines aromatic spices and sweet apples with tangy citrus zest and sea salt.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 233 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Turkey + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Turkey + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,592 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, thyme, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).