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 ↓
Roast Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turkey
Draw the turkey by making an incision at the back of the neck and cutting away the vent.
Remove the insides, reserving the liver and gizzard after cleaning them.
Cut off the head and neck, scald the feet, and remove the rough skin and claws.
Stuff and roast
Fill the inside and pouch of the turkey with sausage meat or veal stuffing.
Truss the turkey with skewers or string and roast it in a good fire, basting frequently.
Serve
When done, serve with fried sausages around it, pour brown gravy over, and serve bread sauce separately.
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; its meat is the centrepiece that cooks through during roasting.
- Sausage meat or veal stuffing
- Fills the cavity, adding savoury flavour and moisture to the surrounding meat as it cooks.
- Fried sausages
- Adds browned, savoury flavour as a side arranged around the bird.
- Brown gravy
- Adds moisture and savoury depth to the sliced meat when poured over at serving.
The step that matters
Basting during roasting. Turkey is lean and dries out easily in dry heat. Frequent basting spreads the fat and juices over the surface, helping keep the meat moist and the skin evenly browned.
“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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