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A LA Diable

Baked scallops in white sauce with bread crumbs, sherry, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 682 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter

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 filling

  1. Scald the scallops and chop them coarsely.

  2. Stir the scallops and bread crumbs into enough white sauce to blend without making it too liquid.

  3. Add the sherry to soften the mixture.

  4. Season with salt, curry powder, celery salt, and cayenne, ensuring no single flavor dominates.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mixture into buttered shells, top with browned bread crumbs, and dot with butter.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 5 to 10 minutes, just until heated through.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together682 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sauce + scalloptop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Scallop + breadtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Celery + sherrytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Bread + celerytop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 firm when gently heated.
White sauce
Binds the filling and keeps it moist and creamy during baking.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the mixture slightly and brown on top for a crisp finish.
Sherry
Adds moisture and a mild acidic, aromatic note that softens the mixture.

The step that matters

Bake just until heated through. Scallops are delicate and become rubbery when overcooked, so the baking time should be kept short.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

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

  1. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Pepperabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, scallop, bread, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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