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Scallops in Shells

Scallops in shells baked with breadcrumbs, white sauce, butter, cayenne, salt, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Scallops in Shells

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the scallops

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove the scallops from their shells and clean them.

  3. Melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the scallops until just cooked.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the scallops with breadcrumbs, white sauce, cayenne, salt, and parsley in a bowl.

  2. Spoon the mixture back into the scallop shells.

  3. Drizzle with lemon juice and bake for 15 minutes.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Scallop + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Scallops
Provide the main protein, which firms and turns opaque when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the filling, helping it hold together in the shell.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the scallops brown lightly when sautéed.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the flavour.

The step that matters

Sauté the scallops until just cooked. Scallops are lean and turn rubbery when overcooked. Cooking them only until opaque keeps them tender, since they will cook further in the oven.

“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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