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Turkey Scallop

A baked casserole of chopped turkey layered with bread crumbs, butter, and a thick egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Turkey Scallop

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 filling

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of cold turkey.

  2. Chop the meat finely.

Layer the dish

  1. Layer bread crumbs in a buttered dish.

  2. Moisten the bread crumbs with a little milk.

  3. Add a layer of turkey and some filling.

  4. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  5. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  6. Add another layer of bread crumbs.

  7. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

  8. Add a little hot water to the turkey gravy.

  9. Pour the hot water over the layers.

Top and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, a little salt, and enough cracker crumbs to make a thick spread.

  2. Spread the mixture over the top.

  3. Dot the mixture with butter.

  4. Cover the dish with a plate.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  6. Ten minutes before serving, remove the plate to let it brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey meat
Provides the main protein and savory body of the layered dish.
Bread crumbs
Form the absorbent layers that soak up moisture and hold the dish together.
Eggs
Bind the cracker-crumb topping so it sets into a cohesive spread.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the top brown.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the egg mixture into a spreadable topping that adds body.

The step that matters

Cover, then uncover to brown. The plate covering traps steam so the layers cook through and stay moist; removing it near the end lets surface moisture evaporate so the top can brown.

“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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