Why it works: Flour and chestnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 517 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Dinde Rotie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the turkey
Clean and prepare the turkey, trussing it as needed.
Fill the cavity with your choice of dressing, preferably moist chestnut stuffing.
Do not stuff the body with dry stuffing to maintain the turkey's quality.
Place the turkey's liver and a large spoonful of butter inside the body.
Dredge the turkey thoroughly with flour, rubbing it in.
Roast and brown
Set the turkey in a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of boiling water.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cover the turkey with a second pan to prevent the breast from burning.
Baste frequently and monitor the oven temperature carefully.
Roast for 1 hour and 30 to 45 minutes, or about 10 minutes per pound.
For larger turkeys, roast for at least 3 hours.
When nearly done, remove the top pan and baste until well-browned.
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.
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Flour + chestnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together517 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + chestnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together190 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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, cooked whole so heat reaches the meat evenly through the cavity.
- Flour
- Dredged over the skin to help it brown and crisp during roasting.
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the skin brown and stay moist.
- Chestnut stuffing
- Fills the cavity and adds moisture and flavour to the inside of the bird.
The step that matters
Covering the breast and removing the cover at the end. The top pan shields the breast from scorching early, while the lid removed near the end lets the skin dry and brown. Removing it too early can burn the breast, and leaving it on too long leaves the skin pale.
“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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