No. 755

Scallop Shells for Releves Garnishing

Garniture de Coquilles de Petoncles on Coquilles St. Jacques Pelerines Pour Releves

These shells must be chosen the smallest kind and of equal size. They may be filled with a preparation for shells, St. Jacques (No. 1079), or havraise (1075), or brestoise (1874); smooth well the tops, dust over with white bread-crumbs and a little grated cheese, besprinkle with a little butter and bake them in a hot oven. This garnishing is easy to serve, and has one great advantage; that of being able to prepare it in advance.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes this as a component rather than a dish: the shells are a garnish set around a relevé, the substantial course that followed the soup and fish. The instructions are complete only if you also make one of the cross-referenced fillings.

The cross-references are the recipeNos. 1079, 1075 and 1874 are the shell preparations Ranhofer sends you to, presumably scallop mixtures bound in a sauce, havraise and brestoise being named for Le Havre and Brest. Without one of them you have empty shells; any thick, well-seasoned creamed shellfish mixture stands in.
"A hot oven"Read as roughly 425-450F. The filling goes in already cooked, so the shells need only long enough to brown the crumbs and heat through, on the order of 8-10 minutes from room temperature.
White bread-crumbsCrumbs from the crumb of a white loaf, dried but not toasted brown, sieved fine. Panko browns too coarsely for this; commercial dried crumbs are acceptable if fine.
Grated cheeseParmesan or Gruyere would suit; Ranhofer specifies only "a little" grated cheese. Keep the quantity small, since the point is browning, not a cheese crust over the scallops.
Besprinkle with butterMelted butter, dripped or brushed over the crumbs so they colour evenly. Cold dots of butter leave pale patches between them.
The shells themselvesReal scallop shells need scrubbing and boiling before first use, and they should be flat-bottomed enough not to rock on the tray. Porcelain or cast-iron coquille dishes of about 4 inches do the same job.
Preparing in advanceRanhofer's "great advantage" holds, with a modern caveat: cool the cooked filling quickly, fill and crumb the shells, and refrigerate. Cooked shellfish held warm or at room temperature for hours is the one part of this that does not translate.
Yield and servingCount one small shell per guest as a garnish, two if you are serving them as a first course in their own right. On a platter they ring the roast or braise; the crumbed tops should be level with the shell rim so nothing spills when the platter is passed.

A Little History

The name carries a pilgrimage in it: the scallop, coquille Saint-Jacques, was the badge of those who walked to the shrine of St. James at Santiago de Compostela; pelerine -- pilgrim -- is also simply part of the French name for the large scallop. By the time Charles Ranhofer set down The Epicurean in 1894, after some three decades running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, the phrase was used as much for the vessel and its contents as for the emblem. The book's logic here is worth noticing: this is filed under garnishings, not entrees, because a nineteenth-century releve was expected to arrive dressed, with edible ornaments ranged around the meat. Ranhofer's frank remark that the shells can be made ahead reads as the voice of a chef feeding a large dining room on a fixed service schedule rather than a home cook.