Name: To Roast Geese, Turkeys, &C
Ingredients: 1 goose, turkey, or fowl; 1 piece of white paper; 2 tablespoons butter; flour for dredging

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

1 goose, turkey, or fowl
1 piece of white paper
2 tablespoons butter
flour for dredging

Directions

Singe the bird with a piece of white paper.
Baste it with butter.
Dredge lightly with flour.
When smoke begins to rise and the bird looks plump, baste again.
Dredge with flour once more 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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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 or turkey: The main protein, whose skin and fat render and brown during roasting.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and stay moist as it bastes.
Flour: Dusted on the surface, it helps form a light crust that browns and crisps.

“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.