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English Roast Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with buttered breadcrumbs, seasoned with herbs, and served with gravy and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Prepare the turkey several days before cooking.

  2. Stuff the turkey with bread crumbs moistened with butter and beaten eggs.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, sage, thyme, or marjoram.

  4. Sew up the turkey. Skewer it.

  5. Place it on a rack in a roasting pan.

  6. Spread bits of butter on the turkey.

Roast and baste

  1. Baste frequently with a mixture of butter, pepper, salt, and water.

  2. Glaze the turkey with the egg white a few minutes before it is done.

  3. If the turkey becomes too brown, cover it with buttered paper.

Make the gravy

  1. Dish the turkey once cooked.

  2. Pour off most of the fat.

  3. Add the chopped giblets to the pan.

  4. Thicken the juices with flour and butter rubbed together. Stir well.

  5. Boil thoroughly.

  6. Serve the gravy in a gravy boat.

Serve

  1. Garnish the turkey with fried oysters.

  2. Serve with celery sauce and stewed gooseberries.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Is the main dish, cooked whole so the meat sets and stays moist.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and egg in the stuffing, adding moisture and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture, and helps the skin brown.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Glaze the turkey with the egg white a few minutes before it is done. Egg white sets and browns into a glossy, golden coating when heated. Applied too early it can overbrown or dry, so timing near the end matters.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, butter, egg, pepper, sage, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Winter savoryfits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, butter, egg, pepper, sage, thyme. 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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