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Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey is a large bird roasted with salt, pepper, thyme, flour, and a water-based stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Rinse the turkey in cold water.

  3. Fill both cavities with stuffing.

  4. Break the neck.

  5. Turn it into the upper cavity.

  6. Sew the cavities closed with a large needle and coarse cotton.

  7. Tie the legs together close to the body.

  8. Rub the outside of the turkey with salt.

  9. Sprinkle with pepper and thyme.

  10. Dredge with flour.

Make the stuffing

  1. Mix stale bread crumbs with boiling water.

  2. Add thyme, salt, pepper, butter, and turkey fat.

  3. Mix until soft but not runny.

Roast

  1. Place the turkey on a meat rack in a large roasting pan.

  2. Pour in 2 cups of water.

  3. Roast in the oven for 3 to 6 hours, depending on the age of the turkey.

  4. Cover with a pan to retain steam.

  5. Remove the cover during the last hour to brown the turkey.

  6. Turn the turkey over halfway through cooking.

  7. Place the gizzard in the roasting pan with the turkey. Keep it submerged in water. Turn it frequently.

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Turkey + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 provides the meat that is cooked and served.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and fat to form a soft, moist stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and flavor to the stuffing.
Turkey fat
Adds fat for moisture and savory flavor to the stuffing.
Dried thyme
Adds aromatic herbal flavor to the turkey and stuffing.
Flour
Dredging helps the outer skin brown during roasting.

The step that matters

Remove the cover during the last hour. Covering traps steam so the meat cooks through without drying, while uncovering at the end lets dry heat brown the skin. Leaving the cover on too long leaves the bird pale and soft.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Sagefits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, flour, 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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