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Roast Turkey

A roasted turkey stuffed with a biscuit-based mixture, seasoned with pepper, salt, onion, celery seed, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the pepper and salt into the turkey, inside and out.

  2. Make a stuffing with the grated biscuit or roll and the other ingredients.

  3. Stuff the turkey the day before cooking if it has been well drawn or hung for 24 hours.

  4. If the turkey is fat, rub a little butter over it; if not, use more butter.

  5. If the turkey is tough, steam it for 2 hours before baking; if tender, place it directly in the roasting pan.

Roast

  1. Sprinkle the turkey with flour and let it brown.

  2. Pour 1 pint of hot water over the turkey and baste frequently.

  3. Roast slowly for about 2 ½ hours, or until it is a rich dark brown.

Serve

  1. Cut up the giblets (already cooked in the pan with the turkey), skim off the fat, and serve in a gravy boat.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Biscuit + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Biscuit + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Is the main cut of meat, cooked slowly so it stays moist and tender.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the skin brown and gives richer flavour.
Hard biscuit or roll
Grated crumbs soak up moisture and give the stuffing body.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Roast slowly and baste frequently. Slow roasting lets heat reach the thick meat without drying the outside. Basting with liquid keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, biscuit, pepper, celery, butter, egg):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, biscuit, pepper, celery, butter, 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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