Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Fry Scallops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the scallop shells in clean water.
Place the shells in a saucepan over low heat until they open.
Remove the scallops and place them on a dish, coating them with breadcrumbs or flour and adding a little pepper.
Fry
Heat oil, lard, or butter in a frying pan until it begins to boil.
Fry the scallops in the hot fat until browned, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent sticking.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Scallop + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together160 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Scallop + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together70 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter 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
- Provide the main protein, which cooks quickly and becomes tender when heated gently.
- Breadcrumbs or flour
- Form a dry coating that browns in the hot fat and helps prevent sticking.
- Oil, lard, or butter
- Conducts heat to the coating and fries the scallops, giving browning and flavour.
The step that matters
Frying the coated scallops in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Shaking the pan keeps the scallops from sticking as the coating sets and browns.
“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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