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An Old Virginia Receipt for Roasting Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with a breadcrumb and meat mixture, served with a butter and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

An Old Virginia Receipt for Roasting Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the stuffing

  1. Make the stuffing by mixing bread crumbs, shredded beef suet, sausage or veal, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add 3 eggs to the stuffing and mix lightly.

  3. Stuff the turkey with the mixture.

Roast

  1. Place the turkey in a pan.

  2. Roast in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

  3. Dust the turkey with cold lard.

  4. Baste the turkey several times with cold lard.

  5. Roast the turkey for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Cut bread crumbs into fine pieces.

  2. Soak them in cold water with peppercorns, salt, and onion.

  3. Boil until the bread is soft.

  4. Beat the sauce well.

  5. Add ¾ cup butter and 2 tablespoons thick cream.

  6. Serve hot 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when roasted.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and softness.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, giving it a smooth texture.
Thick cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until the bread is soft. Bread that is only partly softened stays grainy and will not blend into a smooth sauce. Soaking first and then boiling gives the bread time to absorb liquid and break down evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beef, meat, pepper, egg, butter, cream):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beef, meat, pepper, egg, butter, cream. 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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