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Roast Turkey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and cranberry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove all feathers from the turkey and singe it over burning newspaper.

  2. Carefully draw the turkey, avoiding breaking any internal organs, and remove the crop.

  3. Cut off the head and tie the neck close to the body.

  4. Rinse the inside of the turkey with several waters, adding baking soda to the second-to-last rinse.

  5. Wipe the turkey dry inside and out with a clean cloth and rub the inside with salt.

  6. Stuff the turkey with dressing, sew it up, and tie the legs and wings to the body.

  7. Rub the outside with soft butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dredge with flour.

  8. Place the turkey in a dripping pan, pour in boiling water, and roast in the oven.

  9. Baste the turkey often and turn it occasionally for even cooking.

  10. Roast for 3 to 4 hours, until the juices run clear when pierced.

  11. If any part is likely to scorch, cover it with a piece of buttered white paper.

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

  13. Chop the heart and gizzard, mash the liver, and return them to the cooking liquid.

  14. Add this mixture to the drippings from the turkey after skimming off excess fat.

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. Turkey + cranberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cranberrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

Swap the cranberry

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

  1. Cranberrythe original
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, pepper, flour, sauce, liver. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More roast turkey recipes

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