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Roast Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with seasoned crumbs, roasted with salt pork and baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the turkey

  1. Singe the turkey over blazing paper or alcohol.

  2. Cut off the feet, tips of the wings, and neck.

  3. Remove all pin feathers with a knife.

  4. Turn the skin of the neck back and remove the crop and windpipe.

  5. Cut a slit in the lower part and draw out the intestines, avoiding the gall bag.

  6. Cut the oil bag from the tail, wash thoroughly, and drain.

  7. Split the gizzard, remove the insides, wash, and boil in 2 quarts of cold water for gravy.

Make the stuffing

  1. Soak the bread and cracker crumbs in cold milk or water until soft.

  2. Mix the soaked crumbs with parsley, pepper, salt, egg, sage, butter, and summer savory.

Stuff and truss

  1. Fill the breast of the turkey first, then the body, and sew the openings securely.

  2. Cross and tie the legs, skewer the wings to the body, and fasten the neck under the body.

  3. Rub the turkey with salt and lay thin slices of salt pork on top.

Roast and serve

  1. Place on a rack in a dripping pan with water at the bottom.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F) and baste often with drippings.

  3. After the first half hour, reduce the oven heat to moderate (350°F) and bake for 2 hours and 15 minutes more.

  4. Fifteen minutes before serving, remove the salt pork, moisten with butter, and lightly dredge with flour.

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. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 provides the meat and drippings for gravy.
Bread crumbs
Soaked to a soft texture, they bind and moisten the stuffing.
Cracker crumbs
Soaked with the bread crumbs, they add body and help hold the stuffing together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing and turkey moist.
Salt pork
Lays fat over the bird, basting it as it renders and adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Oven temperature change after the first half hour. Starting hot browns and sets the skin, then lowering the heat lets the thick stuffed bird cook through gently without drying or scorching the outside.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, sage, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, sage, butter. 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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