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Scallops of Fowl Au Bechamel

Chicken scallops sautéed in clarified butter, then finished with béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Scallops of Fowl Au Bechamel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Remove the flesh from the fowls as directed for cutlets, taking it from either side of the breast.

  2. Lay the fillets flat and slice them into small, thin scallops.

Fry the scallops

  1. Dip each scallop into clarified butter and arrange the scallops in a clean frying pan.

  2. Sprinkle fine salt over the scallops.

  3. Fry the scallops quickly without allowing them to brown, about 3 to 4 minutes.

  4. Drain the scallops from the butter.

Serve

  1. Pile the scallops in the center of a hot dish.

  2. Sauce the scallops with boiling béchamel before serving.

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. 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

Fowls
Provide the lean breast flesh that is sliced into the scallops.
Clarified butter
Coats the scallops and carries heat evenly during quick frying, adding richness.
Béchamel sauce
Adds a smooth, creamy coating that moistens the cooked scallops.

The step that matters

Fry the scallops quickly without browning. Thin scallops cook through in minutes. Over-high heat or long frying drives off moisture and toughens the protein, while browning changes the delicate flavour the sauce is meant to complement.

“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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