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Escaloped Turkey

A casserole of chopped turkey layered with cracker crumbs, seasoned with pepper and salt, baked with gravy or butter and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Escaloped 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

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

Assemble the dish

  1. In an earthen baking dish, layer moistened cracker crumbs and chopped turkey, seasoning the turkey with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is filled.

  3. Pour gravy or a mixture of hot water and butter over the top.

  4. Finish with a layer of moistened cracker crumbs mixed with beaten egg and sweet milk.

Bake

  1. Cover the dish and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes until golden 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of cold turkey
Provides the main protein and bulk that forms the body of the dish.
Powdered cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and form soft layers that hold the turkey together as it bakes.
Gravy or hot water
Adds moisture so the layers steam and stay tender rather than drying out.
Beaten egg
Sets with heat in the topping, binding the crumbs and milk into a custard-like crust.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness to the topping and helps it brown gently.

The step that matters

Finish with a layer of moistened cracker crumbs mixed with beaten egg and sweet milk.. The egg proteins set as the dish heats, so the topping needs to be evenly moistened and spread over the top to bind and brown without drying out.

“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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