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To Stuff and Roast a Turkey

A turkey stuffed with a bread, suet, egg, herb mixture, then roasted and basted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Stuff and Roast a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine the bread, suet, eggs, thyme, marjoram, pepper, salt, and wine to make the stuffing.

  2. Stuff the turkey with the mixture and sew it up.

Roast and baste

  1. Hang the turkey over a steady fire, basting frequently with a mixture of salt and water.

  2. Roast until steam emits from the breast.

  3. Add butter to the gravy, dust flour over the turkey, and baste with the gravy.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled onions and cranberry sauce, mangoes, pickles, or celery.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Soft wheat bread
Forms the body of the stuffing and soaks up the wine and seasonings.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the bread and suet so the stuffing holds together when cooked.
Butter
Enriches the gravy with fat, adding flavor and helping it brown.
Flour
Dusted over the turkey, it helps the skin brown and thickens the gravy.
Wine
Moistens the stuffing and adds acidity and aroma to the dish.

The step that matters

Stuff and sew the turkey, then roast until steam emits from the breast. The stuffing sits in the bird's cavity, where heat reaches it slowly. It must be cooked fully through, and the eggs in it need to set. Judging doneness by steam from the breast is imprecise, so the stuffing and thickest meat should be checked directly.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, bread, beef, egg, thyme, pepper, wine):

  1. Marjoramthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Rosemaryfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, bread, beef, egg, thyme, pepper, wine. 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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