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Escalloped Turkey

A baked dish of diced turkey or chicken topped with stuffing, mushrooms, white sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Escalloped 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).

  2. Butter a deep baking dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer diced cold chicken or turkey in the dish.

  2. Add any leftover stuffing and mushrooms on top.

  3. Pour a good white sauce over the mixture.

  4. Cover with bread crumbs and dot with bits of butter.

Bake

  1. Bake until heated through and 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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Diced chicken or turkey
Provides the main protein and body of the casserole.
White sauce
Adds moisture and binds the layers into a creamy mixture.
Leftover stuffing
Adds bread-based texture and absorbs some of the sauce as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Pour the white sauce evenly over the layers. Sauce that is too thin or unevenly poured leaves dry patches, while too little liquid stops the stuffing and bread from softening and binding. Even coverage gives a moist, cohesive bake.

“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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