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 ↓
Turkey Poult, Roast
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Truss the turkey by tucking the head under the wing and twisting the legs under.
Roast and serve
Baste the turkey frequently during cooking to prevent it from drying out.
Roast a 12 lb turkey for 2 to 2.5 hours, or a 6 lb turkey for about 1.5 hours.
Half an hour before serving, remove any covering to lightly brown the bird.
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 + 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
- Provides the main meat, which cooks through in the oven while its skin browns and crisps.
The step that matters
Roast a 12 lb turkey for 2 to 2.5 hours, or a 6 lb turkey for about 1.5 hours.. Cooking time depends on the bird's weight, and the meat must be cooked through to be safe. Overcooking dries out the lean breast meat, while undercooking leaves the centre unsafe to eat.
“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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