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 ↓
Scalloped Scallops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease the scallop shells.
Place a scallop in each shell and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Pour ½ teaspoon of vinegar over each scallop.
Top and bake
Cover with a layer of bread crumbs seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Moisten the crumbs with the scallop liquor and a little vinegar.
Dot with bits of butter.
Bake for 20 minutes, browning the crumbs if necessary, adding more butter if needed.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Scallop + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together64 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Scallop + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together160 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Scallops
- Provide the main protein, which cooks quickly and turns firm and opaque with heat.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned topping that protects the scallops while they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the crumbs brown richly.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the scallops.
The step that matters
Bake for 20 minutes, browning the crumbs if necessary. Scallops are delicate and overcook quickly, becoming rubbery when heated too long. Checking the crumbs as they brown helps the scallops stay tender while the topping colours.
“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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