Name: To Roast and Stuff a Turkey
Ingredients: 1 turkey; ½ cup bread crumbs; ⅓ cup currants; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 2 tablespoons fresh butter; 1 large egg (or ½ pound minced veal, ¼ pound suet, ½ cup bread crumbs, 1 anchovy, zest of 1 lemon, a little white pepper, and 2 large eggs); coarse sea salt to taste; butter for basting; gravy sauce (made from thin slices of bread, water, a little white wine, 1 blade of mace, sugar, and fresh butter)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast and Stuff a Turkey

Ingredients

1 turkey
½ cup bread crumbs
⅓ cup currants
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons fresh butter
1 large egg (or ½ pound minced veal, ¼ pound suet, ½ cup bread crumbs, 1 anchovy, zest of 1 lemon, a little white pepper, and 2 large eggs)
coarse sea salt to taste
butter for basting
gravy sauce (made from thin slices of bread, water, a little white wine, 1 blade of mace, sugar, and fresh butter)

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

Slit the back of the turkey's neck and remove the crop.
Mix bread crumbs, currants, nutmeg, butter, and egg (or veal mixture) to make stuffing.
Fill the turkey's breast with stuffing and skewer it with the head over the wing.

Roast and serve

Roast the turkey in a 400°F (200°C) oven, basting with butter and flour.
Prepare gravy sauce by boiling bread slices, water, white wine, mace, sugar, and butter until smooth but not too thick.
Serve the turkey with the gravy sauce.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 and carries the stuffing as it roasts.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and butter, giving the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Egg: Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the turkey brown during basting.

The step that matters

Fill the turkey's breast with stuffing and skewer it with the head over the wing.. Stuffing packed too tightly can stay cold at the center while the outside overcooks. Skewering keeps the filling in place so it cooks through as the bird roasts.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, nutmeg, butter, egg, sauce, white wine):

Lemonfits better
Figfits better
Applefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, nutmeg, butter, egg, sauce, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Turkey Soup71 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

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To Roast and Stuff a Turkey