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Fried Scallops
Clean one quart scallops, drain, and dry between towels. Season with salt and pepper, dip in egg and crumbs, and fry two minutes in deep fat; then drain on brown paper.
A four-line recipe that depends almost entirely on two things the text leaves unstated: how hot the fat is, and how dry the scallops are. Get those right and the two-minute timing is sound.
- The hinge: dry scallopsScallops hold a great deal of water, and any of it left on the surface will loosen the crumb coating and make the fat spit. Farmer's "dry between towels" is not a nicety — press them firmly and let them sit uncovered a few minutes before breading.
- Wet-packed vs. dryMany supermarket scallops are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate, which makes them retain liquid and resist browning. Ask for dry-packed (they tend to look ivory or faintly pink rather than stark white); wet-packed ones shed water however hard you towel them.
- A quart of scallopsShellfish were sold by volume in 1896. A quart is roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb shucked, enough for four as a main course or six as a first course.
- "Deep fat" means a temperatureFarmer elsewhere tests fat with a bread cube rather than a thermometer; the recipe gives no figure. In modern terms aim for around 375F: cooler and they absorb grease before the crust sets, hotter and the crumbs darken before the centre is hot.
- Two minutes is correctThis is one old timing that does not need correcting. Scallops are done the moment they turn opaque; three or four minutes turns them to rubber. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop below temperature and force you to go longer.
- The side muscle"Clean" plausibly covers pulling off the small tough crescent of muscle on the side of each scallop, which stays chewy however briefly it cooks. It peels away with a thumbnail.
- Egg and crumbsElsewhere Farmer's standard breading is crumbs, then beaten egg diluted with a little water, then crumbs again; this recipe specifies only egg and crumbs. Use fine dry crumbs, not fresh, or they burn.
- Brown paperBrown paper was the period's draining surface. A wire rack set over a sheet pan works better — paper traps steam under the crust and softens it.
Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) was written for a well-supplied fish market city, and it treats scallops as an everyday item rather than a luxury — sold shucked, by the quart, alongside oysters and clams. In Farmer's day the small, sweet bay scallops of Cape Cod and Long Island were the familiar seasonal autumn catch; the offshore sea scallop fishery off Massachusetts was still a lesser trade and did not reach large scale until the twentieth century. Only the adductor muscle was eaten here, then as now, though European cooks kept the roe. The recipe's structure — season, dip in egg and crumbs, fry, drain on brown paper — follows the all-purpose frying formula Farmer applies to oysters and croquettes elsewhere in the book, and it reflects her central project of reducing cooking to repeatable steps a student could follow without a teacher at her elbow.