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To Roast a Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with a force‑meat mixture of breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, and optional ham, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 957 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix grated bread-crumbs, minced suet, sweet marjoram, grated lemon peel, nutmeg, pepper, coarse sea salt, and beaten egg yolk to make a force-meat. Optionally add grated cold ham.

  2. Singe the turkey's skin over a flame to remove hairs. Reserve the neck, liver, and gizzard for gravy.

Roast

  1. Stuff the turkey with the force-meat, forming extra balls for frying to place around the turkey when served.

  2. Dredge the turkey with flour. Roast it in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting with cold lard.

  3. Near the end of cooking, move the turkey closer to the fire, dredge lightly with flour, and baste with butter.

  4. Roast for 2 to 3 hours, depending on size.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Cut giblets into pieces, season, and stew in a very little water for 2 hours. Thicken with browned flour and stir in the drippings from the pan after skimming off the fat.

  2. Serve the turkey with ham or tongue, mushroom sauce, and stewed cranberries.

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. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  2. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 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 (in the method)
Provides the main roast meat, cooked through by long, dry oven heat.
Grated bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the force-meat so it holds together while cooking.
Minced suet
Adds fat that keeps the force-meat moist and rich as it cooks.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the force-meat and enriches its color and texture when cooked.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasty, deeper flavor.

The step that matters

Basting the turkey with cold lard, then butter. Fat brushed over the skin conducts heat and promotes even browning while keeping the surface from drying out during long roasting. Switching to butter near the end adds richer browning and flavor.

“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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