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Mince, or Scallop, of Fowl Au Gratin

A gratin of shredded fowl with béchamel, Parmesan, and a breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Mince, or Scallop, of Fowl Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the meat from the breast and white parts of the roast fowl into shreds or scallops.

  2. In a pan, combine the meat with béchamel sauce, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, pepper, salt, glaze, and cream.

  3. Heat the mixture over low heat until well mixed.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the scallops to a dish, forming a dome shape.

  2. Cover the scallops with a mixture of fried bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

  3. Drizzle clarified butter over the top.

  4. Arrange croutons or fried potato pieces around the dish.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 10 minutes, ensuring they do not burn.

Serve

  1. Pour béchamel sauce around the entree and serve.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat from the breast and white parts of a roast fowl
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its substance once shredded or sliced.
Béchamel sauce
Adds creamy moisture so the meat stays moist and binds the filling together.
Grated parmesan cheese
Melts into the topping and browns in the oven, adding savoury flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Fried bread crumbs
Crisp up in the oven to form a golden, textured top layer.
Clarified butter
Carries heat and encourages even browning of the topping.

The step that matters

Baking the topped dish. Bake only until the topping is golden, since the crumbs and cheese brown quickly and can burn while the filling warms through.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sauce, parmesan cheese, pepper, cream, bread, cheese):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sauce, parmesan cheese, pepper, cream, bread, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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