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Scallops and Mushrooms

Scallops served on fried mushrooms, finished in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Scallops and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the scallops

  1. Remove the scallops from their shells and wash them well in cold water.

  2. Place the scallops in a saucepan and cover with milk, adding a little salt and pepper.

  3. Simmer gently for about 50 minutes.

  4. Drain the scallops.

  5. Chop the yellow and white parts separately.

  6. Moisten with a little white sauce.

  7. Season to taste.

Cook the mushrooms

  1. While the scallops are cooking, remove the stalks from the mushrooms, peel them, and fry in hot butter.

Assemble and serve

  1. On each mushroom, place an equal portion of the white part of the scallops.

  2. Pile the yellow part on top.

  3. Heat thoroughly in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Serve.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Scallops
Provide the main filling, with their white and yellow parts giving contrasting texture and richness.
Mushrooms
Act as the edible base that holds the scallop filling and adds earthy flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor when frying the mushrooms, encouraging light browning.
White sauce
Moistens the chopped scallops so the filling stays creamy rather than dry.
Milk
Gently poaches the scallops, keeping them tender and moist as they simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 50 minutes. Gentle heat keeps the scallops tender; a rolling boil toughens their proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving them rubbery and dry.

“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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