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Trussed Turkey

A turkey stuffed with a seasoned mixture, roasted with buttered paper, and served with a brown sauce from its drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Trussed Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Stuff the turkey loosely with the mixture to absorb the gravy.

Roast

  1. Wrap the turkey in heavy buttered paper and roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Baste often with melted butter.

  3. About 10 minutes before removing, take off the paper, sprinkle with flour and coarse sea salt, and baste with butter to brown.

Serve

  1. When cooked, place the turkey on a hot dish.

  2. Prepare brown sauce with the liquid from the dripping pan and pour some around the turkey, serving the rest separately.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Turkey + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together531 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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.
Melted butter
Adds moisture and fat to the skin, helping it brown during roasting.
Flour
Sprinkled on the skin, it helps the surface brown and crisp as it roasts.
Stuffing mixture
Absorbs gravy and juices from the turkey, adding moisture and flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Removing the paper to brown the turkey. Keeping the paper on until about 10 minutes before the end traps steam and protects the skin, so it stays moist. Uncovering it late, then basting with butter and dusting with flour, lets the surface brown and crisp without drying the meat.

“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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