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
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a baking dish and layer bread crumbs at the bottom.
Assemble
Add a layer of chopped turkey and any leftover cold dressing.
Layer sliced hard boiled eggs on top of the turkey.
Alternate layers of meat, crumbs, and eggs, adding bits of butter and seasoning to each layer.
Finish with a layer of bread crumbs and dot with butter.
Thin the leftover gravy with hot water or milk and pour over the dish.
Bake and serve
Cover the dish and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the cover a few minutes before serving to let it brown.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Turkey + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together281 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold turkey
- Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat layers.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Add richness and a firm, sliced texture between the layers.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up moisture and give the layers body and structure.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor that soaks into the layers while baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Covering and uncovering the dish. Baking covered traps steam so the layers heat through and stay moist. Removing the cover near the end lets surface moisture evaporate, so the top can brown.
“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.
More turkey scallop recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Turkey Soup71 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipes