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Scalloped Turkey

A baked casserole of finely chopped cold turkey with cracker crumbs, milk, stuffing, pepper, salt, butter, gravy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scalloped 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 the turkey

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of a cold turkey, discard the skin and gristle, and chop the meat finely.

Layer the dish

  1. In a buttered dish, layer cracker crumbs and moisten them with milk.

  2. Spread a layer of minced turkey over the crumbs, adding bits of stuffing, pepper, salt, and small pieces of butter.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is nearly full.

  4. Before adding the top layer, pour in the leftover turkey gravy.

  5. Cover with a layer of cracker crumbs soaked in milk, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and beaten eggs.

  6. Spread the mixture over the top and bake at 350°F (175°C) until well cooked.

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

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

  2. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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 and provides the savory filling.
Cracker crumbs
Soak up milk and gravy to form a moist, tender layer between the meat.
Milk
Moistens the cracker crumbs so they soften and bind with the layers.
2 eggs
Beaten eggs set when baked, binding the top layer together.
Gravy from the turkey
Adds moisture and savory flavor throughout the layers as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until well cooked. The dish must be heated through so the beaten eggs in the top layer set fully and the meat is cooked. Underbaking leaves a wet, loose custard-like center, so check that the middle is firm before serving.

“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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