Tonight is "scallop experiment night." We had scallops last night, and they were disappointing. Delicious, but not as browned as I wanted. I tried Alton Brown's recipe, but the smoke point for butter and olive oil is too low for the high heat he recommended. I burned some oil and had to restart, but luckily didn't burn the scallops. But . . . they didn't have an amazing "crust," even though they had good flavor and were not tough. So tonight, we are eating the other half of the bag this way:
1. Julia Child (she recommends starting dry and testing to see if they are dry or wet scallops and cooking accordingly. I assumed dry since there were not chemicals or solutions on the bag (Kirkland), but we shall see. This could be the problem, in which case she has solutions.
2. Frying in a bit of ghee rather than butter/olive oil, and then adding butter at the end for flavor. This is to raise the heat since it has a higher smoke point.
3. Dusting with an extremely small pinch of sugar (works for shrimp) to increase browning.
4. Breaded in panko, just because (always wanted to try an admirals platter, but never wanted to commit to that much deep fried shellfish)
5. In a cast iron skillet
6. In a non-stick skillet
7-8 ?? ??
Going to be kind of a project with me and my sweetie. Scallops cook in 3 minutes, so cooking 2 at a time will be fine.
Edit: Well, the additional types were: sliced (dredged in flour, with shallots and garlic), in bacon fat, in ghee with shallots, wine, and butter, and dredged in flour with garlic and shallots.
Verdict: Pans--non stick was best. Cast iron awful for sticking.
Dredging vs. not dredging: neutral (I preferred dredged, partner liked plain)
Aromatics vs. none: none was mostly preferred, though both delicious. Partner definitely preferred butter/salt/pepper only.
Fat: Ghee was the winner, and it turned out Julia Child recommended clarified butter. I was thinking regular butter and higher heats were a nonstarter, but 2 cookbooks recommended it.)
Anyhow, much better browning today. Will use: room temperature scallops well dried in a nonstick pan that is not over crowded, just salt and pepper, medium high heat, ghee (with butter added towards the end) in the future! This was a pretty fun "date night" for us.