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Royal Scallop

A baked casserole of eggs, fish or meat, buttered crumbs, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,487 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a baking dish and add one-quarter of the crumbs.

Layer

  1. Layer with chopped eggs and then the fish or meat.

  2. Cover with one-quarter of the crumbs.

  3. Repeat the layers of eggs and meat.

  4. Pour the white sauce over the top and cover with the remaining crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake until the crumbs are lightly browned.

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. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + fishtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + saucetop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,895 recipes

Egg and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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
Provide body and a firm, sliceable texture within the layers.
Flaked fish or meat
Supplies the main protein, setting firm and savory as it bakes in the sauce.
Buttered crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and absorb some sauce for texture.
White sauce
Adds moisture and binds the layers together as it heats and thickens.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are lightly browned. Baking long enough sets the white sauce and cooks the egg and fish through, while the buttered crumbs brown. Stop when the top is golden, since over-baking dries the sauce and toughens the protein.

“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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