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Scallops, Scalloped

Baked scallops in their shells with lemon, butter, breadcrumbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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, Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the scallops

  1. Open the scallops and remove them from their shells, trimming away the black parts.

  2. Rinse the scallops in water with a drop of lemon juice, then drain and dry them.

  3. Cut the scallops into pieces and mix with bread crumbs, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

Fill the shells

  1. Butter the insides of the deep shells and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Fill the shells with the scallop mixture, level the surface, and squeeze lemon juice over each.

  3. Dredge with more bread crumbs and pour clarified butter on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Scallops
Provide the main protein, which turns tender and opaque when cooked through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and form a crisp, golden crust on the surface.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs and surface brown during baking.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness that balances the richness of the butter and scallops.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Scallops are delicate and turn rubbery if overcooked, so watch the oven closely while the crumbs brown.

“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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