Why it works: Butter and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Roast Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and roast
Fill the breast of the turkey with veal forcemeat and truss it.
Cover the breast with buttered paper or fat bacon, removing it 20 minutes before the turkey is finished.
Baste the turkey well while roasting.
Roast the turkey for 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on its size.
Serve
Garnish with nicely baked sausages and serve with boiled ham or tongue.
Serve with your choice of sauce: oyster, tomato, celery, chestnut, or mushroom.
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.
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Ham + oystertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together360 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Turkey + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turkey
- Provides the main body of meat, which cooks through during the long roasting time.
- Veal forcemeat
- Stuffs the breast, adding moisture and richness to the lean white meat as it cooks.
- Butter or fat bacon
- Covers the breast to slow browning and keep it moist, then is removed to crisp the skin.
The step that matters
Removing the breast covering 20 minutes before the end. Leaving the buttered paper or bacon on until the finish keeps the skin from browning and crisping. Removing it in time lets the surface brown, while the covering has already protected the breast from drying out.
“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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