Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Scallops

Scalloped scallops are baked scallop pieces topped with a white sauce and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the scallops in salt and water.

  2. Boil the scallops gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Butter the scallop shells.

  4. Cut the scallops into small pieces.

  5. Place the scallop pieces in each shell.

Make the sauce and assemble

  1. In a bowl, mix the white sauce, parsley, egg yolk, chili vinegar, cream, salt, cayenne, and pepper.

  2. Pour the sauce over the scallops.

  3. Sprinkle the scallops with bread crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + scalloptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 dish and provide its seafood flavour and texture.
White sauce
Forms a creamy binder that moistens the scallops and keeps them from drying out.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce and helps it set smoothly when heated.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the scallops gently for 20 minutes. Scallops turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so a gentle simmer is needed to cook them through without toughening the protein. Boiling hard would toughen them further.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, egg, vinegar, cream, pepper, scallop, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg, vinegar, cream, pepper, scallop, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes