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Turkey Scallop

A layered casserole of chopped turkey, breadcrumbs, and butter baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

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

  2. Layer bread crumbs in a buttered dish and moisten them with a little milk.

Layer and assemble

  1. Add a layer of turkey and some filling.

  2. Place small pieces of butter on top. Sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  3. Add another layer of bread crumbs.

  4. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

  5. Add a little hot water to the leftover turkey gravy and pour it over the layers.

  6. In a bowl, mix 2 eggs, ½ cup milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter, a little salt, and enough cracker crumbs to thicken the mixture.

  7. Spread the mixture over the top. Dot with butter.

  8. Cover with a plate.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Ten minutes before serving, remove the plate to let it 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 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

Cold turkey meat
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it substance and savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and gravy, creating a soft, moist layered texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like topping as it bakes.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumbs and the topping, adding softness to the custard.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the egg and milk mixture so the topping holds together.

The step that matters

Removing the plate to brown. Covering the dish traps steam so the topping sets gently without drying. Uncovering only near the end lets the surface brown, and removing it too early can leave the top pale or the custard underset.

“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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