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Baked Scallops
Take the scallops out of their shells and trim off the beards and all the black parts. Wash the deep shells of the scallops, dry them, put in the scallops, and pour one-half tablespoonful of vinegar over each. Blanch a bunch of parsley and chop it finely; mix it with the grated breadcrumbs, season to taste with pepper and salt, and bind the mixture into a paste with a little milk. Spread some of the paste over each shell, strew a few dried breadcrumbs on the top, and put a small piece of butter on each. Place them in a brisk oven and bake for twenty minutes. Serve the scallops very hot and in their shells, on a folded napkin on a dish.
A straightforward gratin of scallops baked in the shell, written when scallops arrived whole and live. Two things need attention: the oven is hotter than the wording suggests, and the timing is far longer than scallops can take.
- The timing is the problemTwenty minutes in a hot oven turns scallops into erasers. Sea scallops need roughly 8-10 minutes at 425F under a crumb topping, and bay scallops less; pull them when the crumbs have browned and the flesh is just opaque. If the crumb crust needs more colour, finish under the broiler for a minute rather than extending the bake.
- "Brisk oven"Roughly 425-450F. Period ranges were judged without thermometers, and a brisk or quick oven sits at the top of the everyday range.
- Shells and "beards"Scallops today are sold shucked, usually as the white adductor muscle alone, so the trimming step is already done. The "beard" is the frilly mantle, and the black parts are the stomach and gut, both discarded. If you want the presentation, buy scallop shells or use small gratin dishes; ovenproof ramekins work as well.
- Quantity per shellThe original does not say how many scallops go in each shell, and 'each' may refer to the shell or the scallop. For modern sea scallops, figure two to three per shell or dish, with about half a tablespoon of vinegar per portion as written -- cider or white wine vinegar rather than harsh distilled.
- Blanching the parsleyThirty seconds in boiling water, then cold water, then squeeze dry. This sets the colour so the herb paste stays green through baking instead of turning drab, and it takes the raw edge off the flavour.
- Two kinds of crumbThe recipe distinguishes the grated crumbs bound with milk for the paste from the dried crumbs strewn on top. Keeping the two separate is worth doing: fully dried crumbs in the paste give a pasty texture, and softer crumbs on top colour less evenly.
- Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no quantities; one filled shell per person is the usual first-course serving. The folded napkin was standard service for shells and helps keep round shells from sliding on the platter.
Oscar Tschirky was the Waldorf's maitre d'hotel, not a cook, but the 1896 Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf collected the hotel's working repertoire, and this dish sits squarely in the French tradition of coquilles -- shellfish baked and served in the shell, of which Coquille Saint-Jacques is the famous example. The scallop shell is traditionally linked to pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela, who wore it as a badge, which is generally given as the origin of the name. What dates the recipe most clearly is the assumption that scallops come to the kitchen alive and whole, beards and roe attached; the American market later settled almost entirely on the trimmed white muscle, so the shells themselves became a piece of tableware to be bought separately rather than a byproduct of dinner.