Name: Fried Scallops
Ingredients: scallops; coarse sea salt; black pepper; bread crumbs; 1 egg; cooking oil (cottolene)

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

Sprinkle scallops with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Roll scallops in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread crumbs again.
Heat cooking oil in a pan and fry the scallops until golden brown.
Serve with mayonnaise.

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.

Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Scallop + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Scallop + peppertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together154 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Scallop + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together90 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).