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Turkey Scallop

A baked casserole of chopped turkey, bread crumbs, butter, eggs, and milk, layered and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 a cold cooked turkey and chop it fine.

  2. Layer bread crumbs in a buttered pudding dish.

  3. Moisten the bread crumbs with a little milk.

Layer the dish

  1. Add a layer of turkey and some cold dressing.

  2. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Add another layer of bread crumbs.

  5. Repeat layers until the dish is nearly full.

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

  7. Pour the hot water over the layers.

Top and bake

  1. In a bowl, beat 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and a little salt.

  2. Stir in enough cracker crumbs to spread thickly over the top.

  3. Dot with small bits of butter.

  4. Cover with a plate.

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

  6. Remove the plate.

  7. 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 + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form the absorbent base layers that soak up moisture and hold the turkey together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the top brown and the layers taste rounded.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browning topping over the dish.

The step that matters

Remove the plate and let it brown. The cover traps steam so the top stays moist; removing it lets dry heat brown the crumb topping. Leaving it covered too long leaves the top pale and soft.

“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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