Scallop Stew
Make same as Oyster Stew, using one quart scallops in place of oysters. 4 cups milk
The instruction is a cross-reference: Farmer's Oyster Stew scalds milk, heats the shellfish in its own liquor until the edges ruffle, then combines the two with butter and seasoning. Everything that matters here is in the timing.
- The hinge: seconds, not minutesScallops are done when the flesh turns from translucent to just opaque, which takes about a minute in simmering liquid. Held longer they tighten and go rubbery and leak water into the milk, thinning the stew.
- A quart of scallopsThis is a volume measure of shucked meats, roughly 2 lb. Bay scallops can go in whole; sea scallops should be halved or quartered crosswise so they cook evenly in that short window.
- Buy dry-packedMany supermarket scallops are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate, which makes them retain water and refuse to sear. For a milk stew the bigger problem is the extra liquid, and treated scallops are often described as having a soapy off-taste; ask for dry or untreated scallops.
- There is no scallop liquorOysters come packed in their own brine, which is half the flavour of the original stew. Scallops arrive nearly dry, so build a base instead: sweat a little onion or leek in the butter, or add a few tablespoons of clam juice or fish stock to the milk.
- Butter and seasoningThe oyster stew this refers back to is generously buttered, on the order of a few tablespoons for a quart of shellfish and 4 cups milk, with salt and pepper. Season the milk before the scallops go in, since there is no time to taste and adjust afterwards.
- Keep the milk under a boilScalded means about 180F, hot enough to steam at the edges. Boiling milk with shellfish in it both toughens the scallops and encourages the stew to break.
- YieldServes four to six as a first course, four as a supper. Serve at once in heated bowls, with crackers if you like; it does not hold or reheat well.
Milk-based shellfish stews of this kind were the plain everyday cousins of chowder along the New England coast, and Fannie Farmer's book gives oyster stew fullest treatment, with clam and scallop handled more briefly. That the scallop version merits only a sentence says something about how the ingredient was regarded around 1896. Scallops were abundant, cheap and local, particularly the small bay scallops of Massachusetts and Long Island waters, and they did not keep, so they were a shore-town food rather than a luxury; the reversal in price and prestige came later, with refrigerated shipping and the growth of the offshore sea-scallop fishery. Note also that Americans eat only the adductor muscle, discarding the roe and mantle that European cooks often keep.