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Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey is a whole turkey seasoned with salt and butter, baked until browned and served with optional giblet gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Roast Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Dress, clean, stuff, and truss the turkey.

  2. Place it on its side on a rack in a dripping pan.

  3. Rub the entire surface with coarse sea salt.

  4. Spread the breast, legs, and wings with softened butter mixed with flour.

  5. Dredge the bottom of the pan with flour.

Roast and baste

  1. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. When the flour on the turkey begins to brown, reduce the heat.

  3. Baste with fat in the pan and add boiling water.

  4. Continue basting every 15 minutes for about 3 hours until cooked.

  5. For basting, use melted butter mixed with boiling water.

  6. Turn the turkey frequently to ensure even browning.

  7. If browning too fast, cover with buttered paper.

Serve and make gravy

  1. Remove string and skewers before serving.

  2. Garnish with parsley or celery tips.

  3. For giblet gravy, skim off fat from the pan, brown with flour, and gradually add stock.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper, and strain.

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. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Turkey + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by long roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the skin and helps it brown during roasting.
Flour
Coats the skin and helps it brown, and thickens the pan drippings for gravy.
Stock
Provides liquid and flavor for the giblet gravy.

The step that matters

Turning the heat down once the flour browns. Browning starts quickly at high oven heat, so lowering the temperature lets the bird cook through without the skin scorching before the interior is done.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, flour, liver):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, flour, liver. 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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