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Scallops En Brochettes with Ham
Procure one and a half pounds very fresh medium-sized scallops and arrange equally on six skewers, running the skewers right through the centre of each scallop. Have on a plate one teaspoon salt, half teaspoon white pepper and a tablespoon oil; mix well, roll the scallops in the seasoning and then lightly in bread crumbs. Arrange the skewers on a double broiler and broil for five minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm.
Broil for two minutes on each side six very thin slices ham. Dress the ham neatly on a hot dish, arrange the scallops on top and serve.
A straightforward broiled skewer that needs only one real adjustment: the cooking time, which belongs to an era of weaker broilers and larger, tougher scallops.
- Cut the broiling timeFive minutes a side under a modern broiler will turn scallops into erasers. Sea scallops of medium size need roughly 1 to 2 minutes per side at high heat, until just opaque at the centre and still slightly translucent at the very middle.
- "Double broiler"This is a hinged double-sided wire grill that clamps the skewers between two grids so they can be flipped in one motion, not a double boiler. A sheet pan set close under the broiler, or a hot grill pan, does the same job.
- Scallops to buyAsk for dry-packed (chemical-free) sea scallops. Wet-packed scallops are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate, hold water, and will steam rather than brown. Remove the small tough side muscle from each before skewering.
- Seasoning quantityOne tablespoon of oil is not much for 1.5 lb of scallops; expect to use two or three so the crumbs adhere. The full teaspoon of salt is reasonable for this weight, but the ham is salty too, so err low.
- Crumbs"Lightly in bread crumbs" means the merest dusting of fine dry crumbs. A heavy coating will scorch before the scallops are done under a modern broiler.
- The hamSix very thin slices of cooked, mild ham, not raw country ham or prosciutto. Two minutes a side is again generous; watch it, as thin slices curl and crisp fast.
- SkewersSoak wooden skewers 30 minutes, or use metal. Two skewers run parallel through each row keep the scallops from spinning when turned.
- YieldSix skewers on six slices of ham: six first-course portions, or three to four as a main with something starchy alongside.
"En brochette" is simply French for "on a skewer," and the phrase carried a certain restaurant polish in American cookbooks of the early 1900s, when kitchen French signalled that a dish had come from a professional dining room rather than a farmhouse. The International Cook Book is generally credited to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its habit of pairing a shellfish with a slice of ham reflects the standard chef's logic of the period: the cured meat seasons and moistens a lean, quick-cooking protein while adding a savoury base for the plate. Scallops were said to be readily available along the American Atlantic coast at the time, and unlike oysters or clams they were sold shucked, which made them unusually convenient for a skewer. The instruction to broil for five minutes a side may reflect the weaker coal or early gas broilers of the day, though it may equally be no more than a period habit of longer cooking.