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Turkey— E. R. 208.

A roasted turkey stuffed with truffles or chestnuts, seasoned with bacon fat, salt, flour, and butter, served with gravy and fried sausage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Turkey— E. R. 208.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Prepare the turkey by removing the crop and filling the breast with veal stuffing.

  2. If using truffles, peel and chop them, then pound with an equal amount of bacon fat. Mix the pounded truffles with whole larger truffles and stuff the turkey.

  3. Hang the stuffed turkey for several days.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the turkey at a distance from a quick fire, covering the breast with a piece of bacon and paper.

  2. When done, remove the paper, sprinkle with coarse sea salt, dredge with flour, and froth with fresh butter.

  3. Serve with gravy and fried sausage.

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. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  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 + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Turkey + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together963 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

Truffles or chestnuts
Provide the aromatic, rich flavour that forms the main stuffing.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and moisture to the pounded stuffing and carries flavour through the bird.
Fresh butter
Froths over the roasted breast to add fat, a golden surface and savoury richness.
Flour
Dredged over the breast to help form a browned, crisp outer crust.

The step that matters

Roasting at a distance from a quick fire. Keeping the bird away from intense direct heat lets the large turkey cook through gently, while the bacon and paper shield the breast from scorching before it is done.

“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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