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Turkey Scallop

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 the meat finely.

Layer the dish

  1. In a buttered dish, layer bread crumbs.

  2. Moisten the bread crumbs with a little milk.

  3. Add a layer of turkey and some filling.

  4. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  5. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

  6. Add a little hot water to the turkey gravy.

  7. Pour the hot water over the layers.

Top and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, a little salt, and enough cracker crumbs to make a thick spread.

  2. Spread the mixture over the top.

  3. Dot the top with butter.

  4. Cover the dish with a plate.

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

  6. About 10 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. Milk + buttertop 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

Turkey meat
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the savory filling layers.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and milk, giving the layers a soft, absorbent body.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumb topping so it sets into a thick, cohesive spread.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and flavour the layers.

The step that matters

Removing the plate to brown the top. The plate covers the dish so the topping cooks through without browning. Removing it about 10 minutes before serving lets dry heat brown the surface, which only happens once the top is exposed.

“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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