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Baked Turkey

Roasted turkey served with a buttered liver and gizzard gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Prepare the Turkey by cleaning, drawing, and trussing it.

  2. Season the inside with salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Place the Turkey in a baking pan with the washed liver and gizzard, and add enough water to make gravy.

Roast

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C), basting frequently.

  2. When it begins to brown, dredge it with flour and turn it often for even browning.

  3. Cover the breast with a sheet of buttered paper.

  4. Once cooked, remove the paper and place the Turkey on a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the gravy in the baking pan and strain it into a saucepan with the liver and gizzard.

  2. Heat the liver and gizzard mixture with a lump of butter and 1 tablespoon of cream until hot.

  3. Pour the gravy over the Turkey and serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main structure of the dish and provides the meat being roasted.
Flour
Dredging the turkey helps create a browned, crisp surface as it roasts.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that promotes browning and flavour in the gravy.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the liver and gizzard gravy mixture.

The step that matters

Basting and turning during roasting. Basting keeps the surface moist and turning the bird promotes even browning, so the turkey neither dries out nor colours unevenly.

“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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