Name: Roast Turkey, Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients: 1 large turkey (25 pounds for 50 persons or 45 pounds for 100); water for boiling; salt to taste; cranberry sauce for serving

Why it works: Turkey and cranberry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Roast Turkey, Cranberry Sauce

50 or 100 persons

Ingredients

1 large turkey (25 pounds for 50 persons or 45 pounds for 100)
water for boiling
salt to taste
cranberry sauce for serving

Directions

Prepare

Singe the turkey to remove any feathers.
Wash the turkey thoroughly.
Truss the turkey by placing the legs inside the body.

Cook and serve

Boil the turkey in a large pot of water until cooked through.
Serve with cranberry sauce.

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.

Turkey + cranberrytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Turkey + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together531 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cranberry + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey: Provides the main meat, whose proteins set and firm as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil the turkey until cooked through. Water boils at about 100°C, so a large bird heats slowly and its thickest parts, such as the thighs, can stay undercooked while the outside looks done. Checking the thickest part for doneness helps make sure the meat is fully cooked.

“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.