Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Turkey Scallop
Ingredients
Directions
Crack the carcass of the turkey and place it with skin, fat, and gristle into a saucepan.
Cover with cold water and simmer slowly to make gravy.
Chop the turkey meat very fine.
Grease a pie dish and sprinkle the bottom with breadcrumbs.
Layer minced turkey, stuffing, bits of butter, pepper, and salt in the dish.
Repeat layers until the dish is full, reserving enough breadcrumbs for the top crust.
Once the gravy is ready, strain it and return it to the saucepan.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour mixed with milk and bring to a boil.
Pour the gravy over the scallop, saving a little to moisten the top.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Turkey + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together281 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
More turkey scallop recipes
You might also like
Green Corn Pudding64 recipes
Cornmeal mush12 recipesThe 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.