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Turkey Scallop

A baked casserole of finely chopped cold turkey layered with bread crumbs, butter, and a thick egg‑butter mixture.

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

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

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

  2. Grease a dish with butter and layer bread crumbs on the bottom, moistening them with a little milk.

Layer and top

  1. Add a layer of turkey and some filling, then place small pieces of butter on top; sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is nearly full, adding a little hot water to the turkey gravy and pouring it over.

  3. In a bowl, mix two eggs, two tablespoons of milk, one tablespoon of melted butter, a little salt, and enough cracker crumbs to make a thick spread.

  4. Spread the mixture over the top, add bits of butter, and cover with a plate.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Ten minutes before serving, remove the plate to let it brown.

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. Butter + milktop 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

Eggs
Bind the topping mixture and help it set into a custard-like layer.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk and gravy to form a moist, tender base layer.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the topping mixture so it spreads and forms a firm crust.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and enriches the egg topping for a soft set.

The step that matters

Removing the plate to brown the top. Covering the dish traps steam so the top cooks gently without browning. Removing the plate for the final ten minutes lets dry heat brown the surface, which is why the timing matters.

“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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