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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pick the meat from the bones of cold turkey and chop it fine.
Layer bread crumbs in a buttered dish and moisten with a little milk.
Layer and top
Add a layer of turkey and some filling, then place small pieces of butter on top. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt, then add another layer of bread crumbs.
Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.
Add a little hot water to the leftover turkey gravy and pour it over the layers.
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.
Spread the mixture over the top and place bits of butter on it.
Bake and serve
Cover with a plate and bake for 30 minutes.
Ten minutes before serving, remove the plate to let it brown.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cold turkey meat
- Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its substance and savory flavor.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up milk and gravy to keep the layers moist and give the dish structure.
- Eggs
- Bind the cracker-crumb topping and help it set as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that moistens the layers and helps the top brown.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread crumbs and adds softness to the custard-like topping.
The step that matters
Covering and removing the plate. Baking covered traps steam so the layers cook through and stay moist; uncovering near the end lets the surface dry and brown. Removing the cover too early can leave the top pale and dry.
“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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