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Scalloped Meat

A baked dish of cooked meat topped with a breadcrumb and gravy mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Scalloped Meat

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Meat

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.

Make the crumbs and gravy

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan, then add the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. In another pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter or beef drippings, add 1 tablespoon of flour, and cook until browned.

  3. Thin the flour mixture with 1 cup of stock, then season with salt, parsley, onion juice, and Worcestershire sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Chop the cooked meat and spread ⅓ of the bread crumbs in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Layer ½ of the meat and gravy, then ½ of the remaining bread crumbs, followed by the rest of the meat and gravy, and top with the remaining bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 25 minutes, or until browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Bread crumbs
Form the body of the dish and soak up the gravy as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy as it cooks in the fat.
Cooked meat
Provides the main filling and protein of the dish.
Stock
Carries the flavor and moisture that turns the flour into gravy.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in fat until browned. Browning the flour in the butter or drippings develops a nutty flavor and deeper color, and it must be stirred to avoid lumps or scorching before the stock is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, flour, parsley, sauce, meat):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, flour, parsley, sauce, meat. 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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