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A whole turkey stuffed with suet, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, and egg, roasted and served with a giblet gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove the skin from the turkey.

  2. Slit the turkey with a sharp knife to prevent the legs from curling during cooking.

  3. Twist the tips of the wings behind the shoulders. Skewer through the wings and legs to secure the turkey.

Make the stuffing

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing the chopped suet, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, half of the pepper, and salt. Add the egg to the stuffing mixture.

  2. Fill the turkey through the neck opening with the stuffing.

  3. Sew the skin closed.

Roast and make the gravy

  1. Place the turkey in a dry baking tin. Distribute the butter over the breast.

  2. Roast the turkey in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 20 minutes. While the turkey roasts, boil the neck and giblets in cold water until cooked.

  3. Once the turkey is done, chop the giblets finely and set aside. Pour the grease from the baking tin and replace it with the giblet broth.

  4. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour. Add the broth and chopped giblets. Cook the gravy for two minutes.

  5. Serve the gravy with the turkey.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main roast; its skin and fat baste the meat as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Flour
Thickens the butter and giblet broth into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Roast the turkey to the right internal temperature. Timing by weight is only a guide; the stuffing and thick meat can stay underdone or dry out. Checking the internal temperature of the meat and stuffing shows when it is safely cooked and still juicy.

Flavor stand-ins for the thyme

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

  1. Sageabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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