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Fried scallops coated in beaten egg and fine cracker crumbs, served with watercress garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and watercress work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 638 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lay the scallops on a clean cloth and cover with another cloth to remove moisture.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the scallops in the beaten egg, then coat with fine cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the scallops in hot lard or dripping until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Remove with a slotted spoon, shake off excess fat, and serve on a hot dish with a border of watercress.

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. Egg + watercresstop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Scallop + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

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

  3. Scallop + watercresstop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Scallops
Main protein; the crumb coating cooks around them while they stay tender inside.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumbs so they adhere to the scallops during frying.
Fine cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried in fat.
Lard or dripping
Heating medium that fries the coating and browns it evenly.

The step that matters

Removing moisture from the scallops. Excess surface water makes the egg and crumbs slide off or steam instead of crisping, so the scallops must be dried well before coating.

“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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