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Royal Scallop

A baked casserole of cooked meat, eggs, and white sauce topped with buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Royal Scallop

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Add a layer of crumbs.

Layer the casserole

  1. Layer the meat and eggs on top.

  2. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  3. Cover with another layer of crumbs.

  4. Repeat the layers.

Make the white sauce

  1. Make a white sauce by melting butter. Add flour. Gradually whisk in milk until thickened.

  2. Pour the white sauce over the meat mixture.

  3. Cover with crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard cooked eggs
Add body and richness, setting softly into the custard-like sauce as it heats.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that binds the casserole together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, which thickens as the flour starches swell.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the roux and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Cooked meat or flaked fish
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the casserole.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in milk until thickened. Adding milk slowly while whisking keeps the flour smooth and lump-free. Cooking the mixture until it thickens activates the flour's starch so the sauce sets properly.

“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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