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Roast Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with a bread crumb and pork dressing, covered with salt pork, roasted and garnished with sausages, parsley, and paper rosettes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roast Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the turkey

  1. Hang the turkey in a cool place for at least a week before cooking.

  2. Draw and clean the turkey carefully, avoiding breaking the gall bladder.

  3. Rinse the turkey thoroughly with cold water. Singe with writing paper. Dry and wipe clean.

Stuff and roast

  1. Prepare the dressing by mixing bread crumbs, chopped boiled pork, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, grated lemon peel, and mace. Fill the turkey's body with the dressing.

  2. Cover the turkey's breast with thin slices of salt pork.

  3. Roast the turkey in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with fried sausages and parsley, or with paper rosettes and celery tops.

  2. Serve with cranberry sauce.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, providing the meat that is roasted and served.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and juices in the dressing, keeping the stuffing soft and light.
Salt pork
Covers the breast, adding fat and savory flavor that bastes the lean meat during roasting.
Sweet fat pork
Adds richness and fat to the dressing, keeping it moist as it cooks inside the bird.
Lemon peel
Adds aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich flavor of the dressing.

The step that matters

Roast the turkey in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently. Turkey breast is lean and dries out quickly, so frequent basting with its juices and fat helps keep the meat moist while the stuffing heats through. Check that the thickest part of the meat and the stuffing reach a safe internal temperature.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, bread, pork, thyme, parsley, pepper, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, bread, pork, thyme, parsley, pepper, lemon. 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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