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Roast Turkey

A turkey roasted with a breadcrumb and oyster stuffing, seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Roast Turkey

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 the dressing

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

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, butter, and enough water to moisten.

  3. Add oysters, salt, and pepper to the mixture and mix well.

  4. Stuff the turkey with the dressing.

Roast

  1. Rub the turkey with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Place 1 cup of water in the bottom of the roaster.

  3. Roast the turkey for 20 minutes per pound. Do not parboil.

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 body of the dish and carries the dressing and roasting juices.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and butter to form the body of the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and the dressing taste rich.
Oysters
Add savory, briny flavor and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Roast the turkey for 20 minutes per pound without parboiling. Cooking time depends on weight, so an accurate weight is needed for the bird to reach a safe temperature. Skipping parboiling keeps the turkey's surface free to brown in the oven, and the stuffing must reach a safe temperature too.

“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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