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Baked Scallops

A baked dish of scallops topped with white sauce, butter, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Baked Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wash the scallops in cold water, then drain and wipe them dry.

  2. Fry the scallops in butter until they are a delicate brown, shaking or stirring to prevent burning.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a well-buttered baking dish, layer bread crumbs and scallops, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Continue layering until the dish is nearly full.

  3. Pour white sauce over the top, then cover with butter and more bread crumbs.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Scallop + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Scallop + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Scallops
Form the main body of the dish and turn tender and delicate when cooked gently.
Butter
Browns the scallops during frying and adds richness to the crust on top.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping and layers that help absorb moisture.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the scallops from drying out in the oven.

The step that matters

Frying the scallops in butter. Scallops brown well only when the surface is dry and the pan is not crowded; that is why they are wiped dry first. Stirring or shaking prevents the butter's milk solids from burning before the scallops are delicately browned.

“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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