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Eoast Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with a breadcrumb, herb, and onion mixture, roasted and served with a savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Eoast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Singe the turkey with burning paper and remove all pen-feathers.

  2. Wash the turkey thoroughly and dry it.

  3. Draw out the entrails and wash the inside with several waters.

  4. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, sweet basil, sweet marjoram, and the finely chopped onion stewed in butter. Season the mixture with pepper and salt, and add chopped oysters if using.

  5. Fill the turkey loosely with the mixture, reserving some for the opening.

  6. Secure the legs and wings with skewers and string.

  7. Season the outside of the turkey with pepper, salt, and dust with flour.

Roast

  1. Place the turkey in a roasting pan and pour 1 cup of water around it.

  2. Roast the turkey for 1.5 hours for a small one, 2 hours for a 10-pound turkey, or 3 hours for a large one, basting frequently.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For the gravy, simmer the liver, gizzard, wing ends, neck piece, and heart with a halved onion, pepper, and salt in cold water for several hours.

  2. Remove the liver and gizzard, chop the gizzard, and return it to the pot.

  3. Mash the liver with the egg yolk and walnut-sized butter, moisten with broth, and stir in flour.

  4. Boil the gravy once, then pour it into the roasting pan to mix with the drippings.

  5. After removing the skewers and strings, pour some gravy over the turkey and serve the rest on the side.

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. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main roasted body that the stuffing and gravy accompany.
Butter
Enriches the stuffing and gives the onion a rich, savoury flavour and moisture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and flavour, giving the stuffing a soft, moist body.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stuffing, and flavours the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps it cling to the turkey.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed liver and adds richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Roast the turkey for the right time for its size. Roasting time depends on weight, and an undersized or overlong roast can dry out the meat or leave it undercooked. Basting during roasting helps keep the surface moist and golden.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, bread, basil, marjoram, pepper, oyster. 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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