
There’s a little prep that needs to be done first. But getting a perfect scallop doesn’t mean just picking one up and tossing it in a pan.

As McGee said, this will give your scallops a crusty Maillard exterior that is a prize on any table.

While you can bake scallops or use them in soups or any number of other preparations, the classic-and, really, the best-method for preparing scallops is a high-heat sear. They may not stand up quite as nicely and may have a bit of an orange-to-pink tinge to them, but when it comes to taste, they are by far the higher quality scallop. While they are more likely to stand up tall rather than being slouchy with this method, they will have a more diluted flavor and will give off a lot of water in the pan. Scallops are sometimes soaked in a solution of polyphosphates to help preserve them and make them look more appealing.
#Searing scallops in cast iron free
When sautéed, scallops quickly develop a rich brown crust thanks to their combination of free amino acids and sugars, which undergo Maillard reactions.”-Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking, pg 229 The abundance of these sugary amino acids is a big part of why they sear up so beautifully: This mode of self-propulsion is great for the sea-food fan because all that work has given scallops large, juicy muscles that are filled with sweet-tasting glycogen. They use their large adductor muscles to flap their shells and expel water to propel themselves along the ocean floor. They are the only free-swimming bivalves. Scallops are ocean-dwelling bivalves that range across the world. If this is something you already know, please feel free to skip ahead, but there are a lot of people who don’t know about these little sea creatures. Add a touch of class to your next family gathering with restaurant-quality seared scallops. To cook sea scallops correctly doesn’t take years of culinary training, it just takes a little thermal know-how, a fast and accurate thermometer, and a good pan. They are pure poetry when prepared properly-sweet but briny, tender and yielding meatiness with a crust browned to a butterscotch perfection.

#Searing scallops in cast iron professional
There are few dishes you can make so easily that make you look more like a professional chef than pan-seared scallops.
