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Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey is a poultry dish prepared by stuffing the neck skin with veal forcemeat, covering the breast with butter or bacon, and roasting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the turkey like a fowl for roasting.

  2. Fill the neck skin in front of the breast with veal forcemeat, shaping it well.

  3. Cover the breast with buttered paper or slitted bacon.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the turkey for 15 minutes per pound, adjusting time based on weight.

  2. Baste frequently during roasting.

  3. Serve with gravy and bread sauce, and accompany with boiled ham or tongue.

  4. Garnish with fried sausages.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 roast; its large mass cooks slowly and needs regular basting to stay moist.
Veal forcemeat
Stuffs the neck cavity, adding richness and moisture as it cooks inside the bird.
Butter or slitted bacon
Covers the breast to add fat, protecting the meat from drying and encouraging gentle browning.
Gravy
Adds savoury moisture and flavour to the sliced turkey at serving.

The step that matters

Roast the turkey for 15 minutes per pound, adjusting time based on weight.. Large birds cook unevenly, so timing by weight alone can leave the breast dry or the thighs undercooked. Checking the thickest part of the meat with a thermometer confirms it is safely done and still juicy.

“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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