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To Roast Turkey

A roasted turkey prepared with butter, suet, egg, optional sauces, stuffed with sausage or breadcrumbs, served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove the sinews from the turkey legs.

  2. Twist the head under the wing.

  3. Be careful not to tear the liver or let the gall touch it.

  4. Prepare a stuffing with sausage meat or bread crumbs and a beaten egg.

  5. Stuff the turkey.

  6. Secure the skin.

Cook

  1. Boil the turkey in a floured cloth to keep it white.

  2. Roast the turkey, ensuring constant heat to the breast.

  3. Baste the turkey well.

  4. Cover the bone with paper to prevent scorching.

Serve

  1. Serve with gravy and plenty of bread 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, and its meat sets and firms as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and meat moist during cooking.

The step that matters

Roast at constant heat and baste well. Steady heat cooks the breast evenly, while basting keeps the surface moist. Uneven heat or dry skin can leave the breast overcooked or the outside dry before the centre is done.

“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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