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To Roast a Turkey

A roasted turkey served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Roast a Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick, draw, and singe the turkey well.

  2. Press down the breastbone and truss the turkey.

  3. Stuff the breast and sew up the neck opening.

Roast

  1. Before roasting, cover the breast with a buttered sheet of parchment paper to prevent scorching.

  2. Remove the paper shortly before the turkey is done to allow the breast to brown.

  3. Baste well with butter.

  4. Roast the turkey for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with gravy and bread sauce.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 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
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks as the central protein.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the skin brown during roasting.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Sausage meat
Adds fat, flavour and moisture to the stuffing.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and tender as it cooks.

The step that matters

Removing the parchment paper before the end of roasting. The paper protects the breast from scorching early on. Removing it shortly before the turkey is done lets the surface brown through dry heat, which the paper would otherwise prevent.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, sauce, butter, meat, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, sauce, butter, meat, nutmeg, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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