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Roast Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with a herb and onion mixture, roasted and served with a gravy made from its own organs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Singe the turkey with burning paper.

  2. Remove all the pin feathers.

  3. Wash the turkey thoroughly.

  4. Dry the turkey.

  5. Draw out the entrails.

  6. Wash the inside with several waters.

Stuff and season

  1. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, sweet basil, sweet marjoram, chopped onion stewed in butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. If using, add chopped oysters to the mixture.

  3. Fill the turkey loosely with the mixture.

  4. Reserve some of the mixture for the opening.

  5. Secure the legs and wings with skewers and string.

  6. Season the outside with pepper and salt.

  7. Dust the turkey with flour.

  8. Place the turkey in a dripping pan.

  9. Pour 1 cup of water around the turkey.

Roast

  1. Roast the turkey for 1.5 hours for a small turkey, 2 hours for a 10-pound turkey, or 3 hours for a large turkey, basting frequently.

Make the gravy

  1. Simmer the liver, gizzard, wing ends, neck piece, and heart with half an onion, pepper, and salt in cold water until tender.

  2. Chop the gizzard.

  3. Return the chopped gizzard to the pot.

  4. Mash the liver with the egg yolk and butter, moistening with broth.

  5. Stir in flour.

  6. Boil briefly.

  7. Pour the gravy from the saucepan into the dripping pan.

  8. Stir the gravy until brown.

  9. Serve the gravy over the turkey.

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. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the skin brown during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Fill the cavity, soak up juices and give the stuffing a soft, moist texture.
Flour
Dusted on the skin to aid browning and later thickens the gravy.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed liver into a smooth, thick mixture for the gravy.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory aroma to the stuffing and the gravy base.

The step that matters

Roasting time by turkey size. A large, dense bird cooks slowly at its center while the outside browns quickly. Matching the roasting time to the weight helps the thickest meat reach a safe, fully cooked state without drying the exterior.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, bread, basil, marjoram, pepper, oyster):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, bread, basil, marjoram, pepper, oyster. 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.

More roasted turkey recipes

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