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Turkey Scallop

A layered baked dish of chopped turkey, bread crumbs, and a custard topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Turkey Scallop

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dish

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of cold turkey and chop it finely.

  2. Layer bread crumbs in a buttered dish and moisten with a little milk.

  3. Add a layer of turkey and some filling.

  4. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  5. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  6. Add another layer of bread crumbs.

  7. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

  8. Add a little hot water to the turkey gravy.

  9. Pour the hot water over the layers.

Make the topping

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, a little salt, and enough cracker crumbs to make a thick spread.

  2. Spread the mixture over the top.

  3. Add bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with a plate.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the plate and let it brown for the last 10 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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, giving it substance and protein-rich bulk.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk and butter, forming a soft, moist layered base.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumb topping so it sets into a thick, cohesive crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown during baking.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and enriches the topping, keeping the layers tender.
Cracker crumbs
Form a thick spread that bakes into a golden, crisp-textured top.

The step that matters

Covering and uncovering the dish. The plate traps steam so the layers cook through and stay moist; removing it late lets the topping dry and brown. Removing it too early can leave the top pale and the layers dry.

“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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