Name: Scalloped Turkey
Ingredients: Cold turkey meat, chopped fine; Cracker crumbs; Milk; Stuffing from the turkey; Salt; Pepper; Butter; Turkey gravy; 2 eggs

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped 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 turkey

Remove the meat from the bones of the cold turkey, discarding the skin and gristle, and chop the meat finely.

Layer the dish

In a buttered dish, layer cracker crumbs and moisten them with milk.
Spread a layer of minced turkey over the crumbs, adding bits of stuffing, salt, pepper, and small pieces of butter.
Repeat the layers until the dish is nearly full.
Before adding the top layer, pour in the leftover turkey gravy.
Cover with a layer of cracker crumbs soaked in milk, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, and mixed with 2 beaten eggs.
Spread the mixture over the top and bake at 350°F (175°C) until well cooked.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together281 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold turkey meat: Provides the main body and protein of the dish, becoming tender as it bakes.
Cracker crumbs: Soak up milk and gravy to form soft, moist layers that hold the dish together.
Milk: Moistens the cracker crumbs, keeping the layers soft rather than dry during baking.
2 eggs: Bind the top crumb layer and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Turkey gravy: Adds moisture and savory flavor throughout the layers as it soaks into the crumbs.

“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.