Skip to main content
Main

Turkey with Truffles

A whole turkey stuffed with breadcrumb, herb, and truffle mixture, then roasted with pork or bacon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the turkey

  1. Draw the turkey.

  2. Singe the turkey.

  3. Wash the turkey, wiping the inside with a cloth.

Stuff and dress

  1. Prepare stuffing by mixing breadcrumbs, summer savoury, thyme, mace, salt, pepper, lemon rind, truffles, egg yolk, and melted butter.

  2. Fill the turkey's crop with the stuffing.

  3. Sew up the opening.

  4. Dust the turkey with flour.

  5. Lay slices of pork or bacon over it.

  6. Place the gizzard under one wing.

  7. Place the liver under the other.

Roast

  1. Cook in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for the first part.

  2. Reduce to moderate (350°F/175°C) for at least two hours, basting frequently.

  3. Cover the turkey with a sheet of buttered paper to prevent scorching.

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. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Turkey + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Young tender turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, so its tenderness shapes the final eating texture.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and egg yolk in the stuffing, helping it hold together and stay moist.
Truffles
Add a strong earthy aroma that defines the flavour of the stuffing.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing ingredients together and adds richness.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture in the stuffing and the bird.
Fat pork or bacon
Bastes the bird as it cooks, adding moisture and browning to the skin.

The step that matters

Cover the turkey with buttered paper. Without this cover the exposed skin can scorch during the long roast at moderate heat. The buttered paper shields the surface while the inside cooks through.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, thyme, pepper, lemon, truffle, egg, butter. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesTurkey SoupTurkey Soup71 recipes