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Baked Turkey

A turkey stuffed with a buttery oyster and bread crumb dressing, baked and served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Rub the inside of the turkey with salt and pepper.

  3. Beat soaked bread crumbs until smooth to make a dressing.

  4. Season the dressing with salt, pepper, and butter, then add the oysters.

  5. Fill the turkey with the dressing and sew the skin closed.

  6. Tie the turkey in shape with twine.

  7. Rub the outside of the turkey with salt and pepper.

Roast

  1. Pour water into the bottom of the baking pan.

  2. Bake the turkey for 2.5 hours, basting often.

  3. When done, place the turkey in a hot dish.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour off the fat.

  2. Set the pan on the stove.

  3. Thicken the gravy 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main dish, and its fat and juices flavour the pan gravy.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and beaten into a smooth dressing that holds moisture inside the bird.
Butter
Adds fat to the dressing, enriching its flavour and softening its texture.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the dressing.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the pan juices into gravy.

The step that matters

Pour off the fat before thickening the gravy. Fat and pan juices separate as the turkey roasts. Removing most of the fat leaves flavourful juices, so the flour thickens a smooth gravy rather than a greasy one.

“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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