Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the turkey by removing the gills from oysters if using.
Mince the oysters and stir them into the dressing, wetting bread crumbs with oyster liquor if desired.
Stuff the turkey, leaving room for the dressing to swell, and sew it up with strong thread.
Rub the turkey with salt and pepper, then spit it.
Roast
Roast for about 10 minutes per pound in a brisk fire, basting often with drippings and flour.
Fifteen minutes before serving, baste with butter and dredge with flour for a frothy appearance.
If the turkey darkens too quickly, cover it with a sheet of white paper.
For large turkeys, make a stiff dough of flour and water, roll it out, and wrap the turkey, pinching the ends together.
Bake slowly, basting every 10 minutes, and remove the crust half an hour before done to brown the turkey.
Make the gravy
To make gravy, boil the heart, gizzard, liver, and neck in 2 quarts of water for 2 hours.
Chop the cooked organs finely and return them to the pot, thickening with 1 spoonful of flour mixed with cold water.
Season with pepper and salt, and let simmer for an additional hour.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,636 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Forms the main mass of the dish, and its size sets the cooking time.
- Flour
- Dredged over the bird and used to thicken the gravy, aiding browning and body.
- Butter
- Basted over the turkey near the end to add fat, richness and golden color.
- Oysters
- Minced into the dressing to add a briny, savory flavor.
- Bread crumbs (in the method)
- Form the base of the dressing, soaking up oyster liquor and drippings.
The step that matters
Basting and the flour crust during roasting. Basting with drippings and flour keeps the surface moist while it browns. Covering with paper or a dough crust slows darkening, so timing matters for an even golden finish.
“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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