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Scallops Fried

Scallops fried in a batter of flour, butter, egg, and milk, seasoned with salt, white pepper, cayenne, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scallops Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Drain the scallops on a cloth.

  2. Sift the flour into a bowl and add a pinch of salt.

  3. Melt the butter, beat the egg, and stir both into the flour.

  4. Add the milk and mix until smooth; if too thick, add more melted butter or milk.

  5. Let the batter stand for 1 hour, then stir in the chopped parsley.

Fry and serve

  1. Season the scallops with salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Dip each scallop into the batter and drop them into hot oil.

  3. Fry until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes.

  4. Drain on a cloth, pile on a hot dish, garnish with fried parsley, and serve with lobster or tomato sauce.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Main protein that becomes tender and sweet inside a crisp batter coating.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets in the hot oil.
Flour
Forms the batter base and, with the egg, sets into a crisp golden coating when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the batter and helps it brown.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth batter that coats the scallops evenly.

The step that matters

Frying the battered scallops. Oil must be hot when the battered scallops go in, so the coating sets and browns quickly. Oil that is too cool lets the batter soak up grease and turn soggy, while overcooking toughens the scallop.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (scallop, egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper, parsley):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against scallop, egg, butter, flour, milk, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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