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Scalloped Turkey

A baked dish of shredded turkey, bread crumbs, butter, and broth, layered and baked until browned.

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

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 broth

  1. Remove all the meat from a cooked turkey and chop it very fine.

  2. Break up the frame and bones, add the fat and skin, and cover with cold water.

  3. Cook down slowly.

  4. Strain the broth from the bones.

  5. Thicken the broth with browned flour.

  6. Season the broth to taste.

Assemble the dish

  1. Butter the inside of a deep baking dish.

  2. Layer fine bread crumbs, turkey, butter bits, and turkey dressing in the dish.

  3. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  4. Pour some broth into the dish.

  5. Spread fine bread crumbs moistened with gravy over the entire dish.

  6. Cover with another dish.

Bake and brown

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

  2. Remove the cover.

  3. Bake until the top is a nice 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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

Cooked turkey meat
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the dish.
Turkey frame and bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the broth as they cook down.
Browned flour
Thickens the broth and adds a toasted, deeper color and flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb liquid to give the layers body and form a browned crust on top.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook down the bones slowly. Gentle simmering draws gelatin and flavor from the bones into the broth without making it cloudy or bitter. Rushing with high heat can scorch the bones and give the broth a harsh taste.

“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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