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Broiled Young Turkey, Cranberry Sauce

Broiled young turkey seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, lemon, and parsley, served with cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Young Turkey, Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Clean and split the turkey down the back, removing the neck and back bone.

  2. Flatten the turkey and remove the breast bone.

  3. Brush the turkey with butter, then season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the turkey over a clear bed of coals, turning often to prevent scorching.

  2. When done, brush the turkey with more butter.

  3. Garnish with sliced lemon and parsley, and 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.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lemon + cranberrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Turkey + cranberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main protein of the dish, cooked by broiling over coals.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, helping the surface stay juicy and brown during broiling.
Cranberry sauce
Adds sweetness and acidity to balance the rich, savoury turkey.

The step that matters

Turning the turkey over coals. Turning often prevents the skin and surface from scorching over direct heat while the inside cooks through. Sugars and proteins on the surface brown quickly, so steady turning keeps browning even.

Swap the cranberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, pepper, lemon, parsley, sauce):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Cranberrythe original
  3. Orangefits less well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, pepper, lemon, parsley, sauce. 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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