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Scallops in Batter

Scallops coated in batter and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Scallops in Batter

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Save the liquid from the scallops.

  2. Place scallops in a colander and pour boiling water over them to cook slightly.

Batter and fry

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, egg, salt, pepper, baking powder, and the saved liquid to create a batter.

  2. Dip the scallops in the batter.

  3. Fry the battered scallops in hot lard until golden brown.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Scallop + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Scallop + peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Flour
Forms the main body of the batter that coats and crisps around the scallops.
Egg
Binds the batter so it clings to the scallops and sets when fried.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the batter, giving it a puffier, airier crust.
Scallops
Provide the delicate, sweet seafood centre that the batter encloses.

The step that matters

Frying the battered scallops in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and pale before it sets. Hot fat sets the coating quickly and drives browning, producing a crisp golden crust while the scallops stay tender inside.

“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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