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Scallop Broth

Baked scallop shells filled with mayonnaise, topped with bread crumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Scallop Broth

12 shells
Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix the mayonnaise by hand.

  2. Wash the scallop shells and fill each with a little mayonnaise mixture.

  3. Grate the dry bread and season it with salt and pepper.

  4. Sprinkle the seasoned bread evenly over the filled shells.

Bake

  1. Form 12 balls of butter, about the size of hickory nuts.

  2. Place one ball of butter on top of each shell.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise
Provides fat and moisture that keeps the filling rich and creamy under the crumbs.
Dry bread
Forms a crisp, golden crumb topping as it bakes.
Butter
Melts and fat-browns the crumbs, adding richness and golden colour.

The step that matters

Sprinkling the bread evenly over the shells. Crumbs spread unevenly leave some shells bare and others heavy, so the topping browns unevenly and the filling may dry or overcook in spots.

“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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