Why it works: Turkey and bread work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 822 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
To Roast Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Draw the sinews of the leg and twist the head under the wing.
Be careful not to tear the liver or let the gall touch it.
Stuff the turkey with sausage meat or bread stuffing.
Place a paper strip on the bone to prevent scorching.
Roast and serve
Baste well and roast until done.
Serve with gravy and plenty of bread sauce.
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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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together540 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Turkey + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together531 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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, cooking into tender meat as it roasts.
- Sausage meat or bread stuffing
- Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavour to the bird as it cooks.
- Paper strip
- Shields the exposed bone from direct heat so it does not scorch.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the sliced meat at serving.
- Bread sauce
- Adds moisture and a soft, mild flavour that balances the rich roasted meat.
The step that matters
Be careful not to tear the liver or let the gall touch it.. The gall bladder can release bitter fluid onto nearby meat if punctured, spoiling the flavour of the bird, so the organs must be handled gently and kept intact.
“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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