Scalloped Turkey (Fannie Farmer, 1896)
The oldest American leftover-turkey casserole we found in print: cold roast turkey in a simple white sauce made with stock from the bones, between layers of buttered cracker crumbs, baked in a hot oven until brown.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Americans were already writing down what to do with the rest of the bird in the 1890s. Fannie Merritt Farmer's "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" (Boston: Little, Brown, 1896) has a short section on warming over poultry and game, and on page 234 it gives "Scalloped Turkey": a cup of sauce made with butter, flour and stock "obtained by cooking in water bones and skin of a roast turkey", poured over a cup and a half of cold roast turkey in a buttered dish lined with seasoned cracker crumbs, covered with buttered crumbs and baked in a hot oven until brown (1896 scan at the Internet Archive:). The same page has "Minced Turkey" served on toast with poached eggs, and one of the book's sample menus lists Scalloped Turkey. Farmer notes that turkey, chicken or veal can be used alone or together. The recipe was still there, word for word, in the 1910 printing (Project Gutenberg:).
🎬 The full story: 10 Leftover Turkey Recipes From Around the World (One Is a Sitcom Sandwich)
🇺🇸 The original
The oldest American leftover-turkey casserole we found in print: cold roast turkey in a simple white sauce made with stock from the bones, between layers of buttered cracker crumbs, baked in a hot oven until brown.
🇺🇸 The American version
The diner made leftovers a lunch counter classic: sliced turkey on white bread, smothered in hot gravy. See the Diner Hot Turkey Sandwich with Gravy recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Stock from the same bird
Farmer makes the sauce from the turkey's own bones and skin, so a plain flour and butter sauce tastes of turkey instead of tasting like paste.
Crumbs on both sides
The seasoned layer underneath soaks up the sauce and holds it, and the buttered layer on top browns in the hot oven into a crunchy lid.
🧰 You'll need 7 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 425°F. Butter an 8-inch square (2-quart) baking dish.
- Step 2
Melt the 4 tbsp butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until bubbling but not browned.
- Step 3
Slowly whisk in the hot stock. Simmer, whisking, 3 to 4 minutes, until smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon. Season with the salt and pepper.
✓ What it should look like - Step 4
Toss 1/2 cup of the cracker crumbs with the 1/4 tsp salt and the pepper and scatter them over the bottom of the dish. Spread the turkey on top and pour the sauce over it.
- Step 5
Toss the remaining 3/4 cup crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle them evenly over the top.
- Step 6
Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the crumbs are golden brown, the sauce bubbles at the edges and the center reads 165°F. Let it rest 5 minutes before serving.
✓ What it should look like
Scalloped Turkey (Fannie Farmer, 1896)
Serves 4 · one 8-inch square dish, about 5 cups · 40 min total
Sauce
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 cups turkey stock (simmered from the bones and skin, see our Turkey Carcass Noodle Soup recipe) or low-sodium chicken broth, hot
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Casserole
- 1 tsp butter, for the dish
- 3 cups leftover roast turkey, cut in small pieces
- 1 1/4 cups coarsely crushed saltine crackers (about 28 crackers), divided
- 1/4 tsp salt and a pinch of pepper, for the bottom crumbs
- 2 tbsp butter, melted, for the top crumbs
Equipment: Oven, Baking dish, Medium saucepan, Instant-read thermometer, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Whisk
Method
- Heat the oven to 425°F. Butter an 8-inch square (2-quart) baking dish.
- Melt the 4 tbsp butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until bubbling but not browned.
- Slowly whisk in the hot stock. Simmer, whisking, 3 to 4 minutes, until smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon. Season with the salt and pepper.
- Toss 1/2 cup of the cracker crumbs with the 1/4 tsp salt and the pepper and scatter them over the bottom of the dish. Spread the turkey on top and pour the sauce over it.
- Toss the remaining 3/4 cup crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle them evenly over the top.
- Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the crumbs are golden brown, the sauce bubbles at the edges and the center reads 165°F. Let it rest 5 minutes before serving.
Adapted from "Scalloped Turkey" in Fannie Merritt Farmer, "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" (1896), page 234, read in the Internet Archive scan of the 1896 edition and checked against the 1910 printing on Project Gutenberg. We double Farmer's amounts (her 1 cup of sauce and 1 1/2 cups of turkey make about two servings). Farmer gives no crumb amount, oven temperature, dish size or time; the 1 1/4 cups of crumbs, the 8-inch dish, 425°F for "a hot oven" and the 15 to 20 minutes are ours. The 165°F check is from UGA Extension. Internet Archive. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- No stock made yet? Low-sodium chicken broth works; Farmer's own book says turkey, chicken or veal can be used alone or together.
- Any mix of white and dark meat is fine; cut it into bite-size pieces so the sauce reaches every piece.
- For Farmer's other leftover dish on the same page, minced turkey, heat diced turkey and soft bread crumbs in the same sauce and serve it on toast with poached eggs.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- This is the first leftover turkey recipe. Disputed wording: it is the oldest American printed leftover-turkey casserole we found, not proof that nobody wrote one earlier.
- The recipe is in the 1896 first edition. Documented: page 234 of the 1896 scan (Internet Archive).
- A "hot oven" means 425°F. Folklore as a rule: Farmer gives no number; 400°F to 450°F is the usual reading of "hot oven", and 425°F is our choice.
- Leftover turkey keeps 3 to 4 days. Documented (UGA Extension, reproducing USDA FSIS).
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