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To Roast a Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with bread crumbs and salt pork, basted with butter, served with cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper 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 ↓

To Roast a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Fill the turkey cavity with a mixture of bread crumbs, salt pork, sweet marjoram, pepper, and salt.

  2. Secure the skin with a skewer.

  3. Dredge the turkey with flour.

  4. If the turkey is not very fatty, place bits of butter on the breast.

Roast

  1. Turn the turkey frequently until the flour begins to brown.

  2. Baste often with salt and water from the dripping pan.

  3. When half done, dredge the turkey again with flour.

  4. If the breast browns too quickly, cover it with a piece of paper.

  5. Fifteen to twenty minutes before serving, drizzle melted butter over the turkey.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For gravy, boil the neck, heart, liver, and gizzard in a pan with 1 pint of water until tender.

  2. Chop finely, discarding the neck, and return to the cooking liquid.

  3. Add the drippings from the roasting pan, skim off the fat, and boil for a few minutes.

  4. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  5. Serve the turkey with cranberry sauce.

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. Marjoram + peppertop 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 + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together830 recipes

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

  4. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main structure and the meat that cooks through during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb cooking juices in the cavity, adding moisture and body to the stuffing.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the stuffing and meat as it renders.
Flour
Dredged on the skin, it browns during roasting and helps build color and flavor.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavor on the breast.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Turning and basting the turkey. Turning and basting spread fat and juices over the skin so it browns evenly and stays moist. Covering the breast with paper slows browning when it gets too dark before the bird is cooked through.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramthe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, pork, pepper, flour, butter, liver. 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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