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Escalloped Turkey

A baked turkey dish layered with breadcrumbs, butter, and a seasoned cracker topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Escalloped Turkey

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turkey

  1. Remove meat from the bones of cold turkey and chop it finely.

  2. In a well-buttered baking dish, layer bread crumbs, turkey, small pieces of butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Continue layering until all ingredients are used or the dish is nearly full.

  4. Pour the milk over the layers and mix gently.

Make the topping and bake

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add 2 tablespoons of milk, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and salt to taste.

  2. Add enough cracker crumbs to the egg mixture to create a spreadable consistency.

  3. Cover the turkey mixture with the seasoned cracker mixture, dot with bits of butter, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 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
Forms the savory body of the dish, providing the main protein and substance.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter, giving the layers a soft, moist, pudding-like structure.
Eggs
Bind the topping and set during baking, holding the casserole together.
Milk
Adds moisture that soaks into the crumbs and turns the dish creamy as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the top brown.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and mixing gently. Milk must be absorbed evenly by the bread crumbs; overmixing breaks up the layers and makes the texture dense and uneven, while too little liquid leaves the dish 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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