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Scallops a LA Momay

A baked dish of scallop shells filled with minced fish, oysters, and Parmesan, served garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scallops a LA Momay

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.

Poach the oysters

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Combine the oysters with their liquid and fish broth in a saucepan over low heat.

  3. Watch closely and remove from heat at the first sign of boiling.

  4. Let the oysters sit in the warm broth for 2 minutes.

  5. Drain the oysters and trim off their beards.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour to thicken the strained broth.

  2. Boil, skim, and reduce the sauce until it coats the spoon.

  3. Add the grated Parmesan to the sauce and moisten the fish mixture with it.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter the scallop shells.

  2. Fill the shells with the minced fish, placing 3 oysters in each shell.

  3. Dust the tops with more Parmesan.

  4. Heat in the oven until golden, being careful not to burn.

  5. Serve on a folded napkin garnished with parsley.

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. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender, briny texture once gently warmed in the broth.
Fish broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying flavor into the thickened coating.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and helps the flour cook into a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the strained broth into a sauce that clings to the fish and oysters.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Minced cooked white fish
Forms the bulk of the filling, held together by the thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Heat in the oven until golden. Browning relies on the Parmesan's proteins and sugars reacting with dry heat, but excessive time or heat scorches them, turning the topping bitter. Watching closely keeps it golden.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, oyster, butter, flour, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, butter, flour, parmesan cheese. 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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