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Roast Turkey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of boiling lard.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until nearly done.

  3. Stir in the soaked bread and fry until perfectly brown.

  4. Season with 2 tablespoons of butter, red and black pepper, salt, and sage if using.

  5. Add the drained oysters to the mixture.

  6. Prepare the turkey by seasoning it with salt and pepper.

  7. Stuff the turkey with the onion and oyster mixture.

  8. Sprinkle a little flour over the turkey and add 2 tablespoons of lard.

  9. Pour the drained oyster water and 1 pint of water into the baking pan.

  10. Baste the turkey often and cook until browned.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, bread, butter, pepper, oyster, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

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

More roasted turkey recipes

with Stuffing 7Poult 5with Chestnuts 4with Oysters 3 See all 122 →

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