Name: Turkey, to Roast
Ingredients: 1 whole turkey; sausage meat (for stuffing) or bread stuffing; paper strip (for protecting the bone); gravy (for serving); bread sauce (for serving); a few bread crumbs; 1 beaten egg (for stuffing)

Why it works: Turkey and bread work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 822 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Turkey, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Draw the sinews of the legs and twist the head under the wing.
Be careful not to tear the liver or let the gall touch it.
Stuff the turkey with sausage meat or bread stuffing.
Ensure the heat of the fire is directed at the breast to cook it thoroughly.
Place a strip of paper on the bone to prevent scorching.
Baste the turkey well and froth it up.
Serve with gravy in the dish and plenty of bread sauce in a sauce tureen.
Add a few crumbs and a beaten egg to the sausage meat stuffing.

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.

Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Turkey + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together531 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).