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Scallops, Fried

Fried scallops coated in flour and sautéed in butter, served hot with parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Scallops, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain and dry the scallops.

  2. Remove the beards from the scallops.

  3. Roll the scallops in flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the scallops in a little butter in a frying pan for about 10 minutes.

  2. Serve hot, 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Scallop + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Scallop + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Scallops
The main ingredient, cooked until opaque and tender with a sweet flavour.
Flour
Forms a thin coating that crisps and browns in the hot fat.
Butter
Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and adds browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the scallops. Surface moisture stops the flour from adhering evenly and turns the coating soggy. Dry scallops sear and brown better in hot butter, giving a crisp crust.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (scallop, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against scallop, flour, 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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