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Scallop of Chicken or Turkey with Celery

A baked dish of sliced chicken or turkey with celery in a creamy sauce topped with buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scallop of Chicken or Turkey with Celery

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook the celery in boiling salted water until tender, then save the water.

  2. Slice the cold chicken, discarding the skin, and season with salt, pepper, and gravy.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour, and when bubbling, add the celery water, milk, salt, and pepper slowly.

  2. Once thickened and smooth, stir in the cooked celery.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer buttered crumbs, chicken, and sauce alternately, then cover with buttered crumbs.

  2. Brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body of the dish, cooked meat layered through the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps the crumb topping brown.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, making it creamy as it thickens.
Celery
Adds tender pieces and flavor that carry through the dish via the celery water.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must cook in the melted butter until bubbling before liquid is added slowly, otherwise lumps form. Once thickened, the sauce stays smooth and coats the chicken evenly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, flour, milk. 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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