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Dinde Rotie

A roasted turkey with butter, water, flour, and optional chestnut stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Dinde Rotie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean the turkey.

  2. Prepare the turkey. Truss the turkey as directed.

  3. Fill the craw with your choice of moist dressing, preferably chestnut stuffing.

  4. Dredge the turkey thoroughly with flour, rubbing it in.

Roast

  1. Place the turkey in a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and ½ cup of boiling water.

  2. Set the pan in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Cover the turkey with a second pan to prevent burning.

  4. Baste frequently. Monitor the oven temperature.

  5. Roast for 1 hour and 30 to 45 minutes, or about 10 minutes per pound.

  6. When nearly done, remove the top pan. Baste again until browned.

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

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

  4. Butter + livertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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

Hen-turkey
Forms the main roast; its lean meat cooks through during the long, moist roasting.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a richer flavor on the skin.
Flour
Dredging coats the skin, helping it brown and crisp during roasting.

The step that matters

Cover the turkey with a second pan to prevent burning. Covering shields the surface from direct heat during the long roast, slowing browning so the bird cooks through. Removing the top pan near the end lets the skin brown.

“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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