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Curried Scallops

A dish of scallops simmered in a curry‑flavored sauce served over toast and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curried Scallops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and drain the scallops.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, curry powder, cayenne, and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Once boiling, add the scallops and cook for 5 minutes until tender.

  3. Serve the scallops on toast with rice.

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 + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Flour + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Scallop + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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
Provide the main protein, which turns tender and firm as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Carries the curry spices and adds richness to the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm, aromatic flavour that defines the dish.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the flavour.

The step that matters

Add the scallops once the sauce is boiling. Scallops become rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added to the boiling liquid and cooked only until just tender, here about 5 minutes as stated.

“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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