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Roast Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with optional oysters, seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked with buttered bread crumbs and giblets in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the inside of the turkey with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Stuff the turkey and tie it securely in shape.

  3. Allow the stuffed turkey to rest for a while before cooking.

  4. Make the dressing by mixing cold bread crumbs with ½ pound of butter and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  5. If desired, add oysters to the dressing.

Roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Pour a little boiling water into the bottom of the roasting pan.

  3. Add the giblets and more than 1 pint of water to the pan.

  4. Place some dressing in the pan to enrich the gravy.

  5. Gradually increase the heat.

  6. Baste the turkey frequently while cooking.

  7. Cook a 14-pound turkey for about 4 hours.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking slowly to tender, juicy meat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, carrying flavour and moisture.
Cold bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing, soaking up butter to stay moist.
Giblets
Simmer in the pan liquid to add savoury flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Baste the turkey frequently while cooking. Basting spreads melted fat and pan juices over the skin, promoting even browning and keeping the surface from drying out during the long roast.

“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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