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Meat Scallops

A baked dish of meat and mashed potatoes topped with seasoned mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the minced onion until hot.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the hot water, seasoning to taste.

  4. Mix in the chopped meat until well combined.

Top and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and cover with a layer of seasoned mashed potatoes.

  2. Wet the potatoes with a little milk and optionally fold in the beaten egg white.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes until light brown.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the hot water and onion mixture into a smooth, cohesive filling.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor for sautéing the onion and carries its aroma into the filling.
Cold meat
Provides the savory, protein-rich body of the filling.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a soft topping that bakes to a light brown crust over the filling.
Egg white
Sets and helps bind the potato topping when folded in, adding structure to its surface.

The step that matters

Baking the potato topping until light brown. Bake only until the surface is light brown. Overbaking dries the mashed potato and the filling beneath, making the dish stiff rather than moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, meat, potato, pepper, milk, egg. 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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