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Roast Turkey

A whole turkey stuffed with a breadcrumb and pork dressing, roasted and garnished with fried sausages, parsley, celery, and served with cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

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

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

  3. Rinse the turkey with cold water, singe with writing paper, dry, and wipe clean.

  4. Prepare the dressing by mixing bread crumbs, chopped boiled pork, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, lemon peel, and mace.

  5. Fill the turkey with the dressing and cover the breast with thin slices of salt pork.

Roast and serve

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

  2. Garnish with fried sausages and green parsley or crimped paper rosettes and celery tops.

  3. 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, cooking to tender meat over a long roast.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat from the bird, keeping the stuffing moist and light.
Boiled pork
Adds fat and savoury richness that melts into the dressing during roasting.
Salt pork
Covers the breast, adding fat that bastes the lean meat and helps prevent drying.
Lemon peel
Adds bright aromatic oils that lift the richness of the meat and dressing.

The step that matters

Basting frequently during roasting. Turkey breast is lean and dries out easily. Regular basting moistens the surface and carries heat and fat across it, helping keep the meat juicy while the skin browns.

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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