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Fried Scallops

Fried scallops coated in breadcrumbs and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the scallops and wipe them dry with a clean cloth.

  2. Beat the egg until the yolk and white are mixed.

  3. Dip the scallops first into the egg, then into the seasoned bread crumbs.

  4. Lay the scallops on a dish, ensuring they are separated to dry for at least 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the scallops in boiling lard for about 3 minutes, shaking constantly to ensure even cooking.

  2. Remove when they are a pale golden brown and drain on a sieve or paper.

  3. Serve very hot, garnished with parsley and lemon.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to tender, sweet flesh inside a crisp coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the scallops so the coating adheres during frying.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and helps the coating brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Drying the scallops before coating. Surface moisture makes the egg and crumbs slide off and steams the coating instead of letting it crisp. Drying well and leaving time to rest helps the coating stick and fry crisp.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (scallop, bread, egg, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against scallop, bread, egg, pepper. 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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