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To Roast Geese, Turkeys, &C

A method for roasting a goose, turkey, or other fowl using butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Geese, Turkeys, &C

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Singe the bird with a piece of white paper.

  2. Baste it with butter.

  3. Dredge the bird with a little flour.

  4. When smoke begins to rise and the bird looks plump, baste it again.

  5. Dredge it with a little more flour and remove from heat.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

Butter and flour 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

Goose, turkey, or fowl
The main protein; its own fat renders and bastes it as it roasts.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor, promotes browning and helps keep the skin moist.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that helps the skin brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Second basting and flouring. Butter's milk solids darken quickly and can scorch once smoke rises, so the second basting and flouring need care at that point.

“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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