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Potato Scallops

Potato scallops are mashed potatoes shaped into scallop shells, baked with butter and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Scallops

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash, peel, and boil the potatoes until fully cooked.

  2. Strain and mash the potatoes with butter, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne.

Fill the shells

  1. Spoon the mixture into six clean, buttered scallop shells.

  2. Score the top with a knife and brush with the beaten egg yolk.

  3. Scatter small pieces of butter on each scallop.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the shells in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

  2. Serve on a dish with ornamental paper and garnish 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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the filling, becoming soft and smooth when mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mash and helps the top brown.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it enriches the surface and promotes a golden browning.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The egg yolk and butter on top brown under oven heat. Removing the shells once golden keeps the mash moist, since longer baking dries the potatoes and darkens the top too far.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, nutmeg, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg, egg, parsley. 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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