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Roast Turkey

A roasted turkey seasoned with salt, butter, and flour, served with gravy and optional cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan.

  3. Sprinkle the turkey lightly with salt.

  4. Brush the turkey with melted butter.

  5. Sprinkle the turkey with flour.

  6. Place strips of fat bacon over the breast.

  7. If preferred, spread a paste of ½ cup melted butter and 2 tablespoons flour over the legs and breast.

Roast

  1. Start cooking in the hot oven, then reduce the heat.

  2. Pour boiling water and butter or drippings into the pan.

  3. Baste every 15 minutes with the liquid in the pan.

  4. Cook an 8‑lb. turkey for about 2½ to 3 hours, or a 12‑lb. turkey for about 3½ to 4 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with Brown Gravy.

  2. Serve with Cranberry Jelly or Sauce.

  3. Garnish with sausage, celery tips, or curled celery and parsley.

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

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

  3. 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

Turkey
Forms the main meat, which cooks through slowly in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown and turn golden.
Flour
Helps the skin brown and thickens the drippings for gravy.
Fat bacon (in the method)
Melts over the breast, adding moisture and flavour to the meat.
Boiling water
Creates pan liquid that mixes with drippings for basting and gravy.

The step that matters

Basting every 15 minutes. Spooning pan liquid over the turkey keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly. Each time the oven door opens, heat escapes and the cooking time stretches, so keep basting brief.

“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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