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Scallop Salad

A chilled salad of boiled scallops mixed with a vinaigrette of vinegar, egg, mustard, salt, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scallop Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the scallops

  1. Boil the scallops for 5 to 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the water and let them cool.

  3. Shred the scallops with a fork.

Make the dressing

  1. Heat the vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, mix the heated vinegar with the egg, mustard, salt, milk, and butter.

  3. Stir the mixture well and serve cold.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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 salad as shredded, tender protein.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dressing into a thick, creamy emulsion.
Mustard
Contributes sharp flavour and helps stabilise the emulsified dressing.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the dressing.

The step that matters

Mixing the heated vinegar with the egg. If the hot vinegar is added too fast or the egg is not stirred well, the egg can scramble or the dressing can split instead of becoming smooth and creamy. Adding the hot liquid gradually while stirring gently keeps the egg proteins from curdling.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (scallop, vinegar, egg, mustard, milk, butter):

  1. Sesamefits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against scallop, vinegar, egg, mustard, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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