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To Roast a Turkey Poult

A roasted turkey poult served on watercress with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Roast a Turkey Poult

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. Truss the turkey poult like a capon, keeping the head on.

  2. Baste the turkey poult generously with good butter.

Roast

  1. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 to 1.25 hours.

Serve

  1. For serving, place the turkey on a bed of watercress.

  2. Pour a little gravy around the turkey and serve more gravy in a tureen.

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. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  2. Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + watercresstop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey poult
Forms the main protein, which cooks through in the oven to become tender and juicy.
Good butter
Adds fat and moisture to the skin, helping it brown and turn golden in the oven.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the serving, complementing the roasted meat.

The step that matters

Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 to 1.25 hours. Too little time leaves the thickest parts of the bird undercooked and unsafe, while too much dries out the lean meat. Checking the internal temperature at the thigh shows when it 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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