Scallops

A couple years ago I posted some scallop recipes. Here is some additional information and recipes.

There is a difference between Bay & Sea Scallops. The first noticeable difference is the size and the shell. While the shape is the similar the Sea Scallop doesn't have the ridges that the bay scallop has. Personally I enjoy both but the bay scallop in my opinion has a richer flavor.

I'm including a link to a you tube video on cleaning bay scallops. Now our historical characters might not have ice to chill the scallops as mentioned in the video but it is a good illustration of cleaning the scallop. We used a scallop knife to clean ours scallops when I was growing up. This same knife is used for oysters and hard shell clams.

SCALLOP, HOW TO COOK
No. 1.—Cover the fish in its own shell with very fine bread crumbs, pepper, butter, salt, &c; in fact, in precisely the same manner in which oysters are scalloped; let it then be put in a very hot oven, which is indispensable, and when done add a little Worcestershire sauce.
No. 2.—Clear them from the shell; take off the beards, as also the black marks they bear: then cut them into four pieces. Pry some bread-crumbs with butter, pepper, and salt, to a light-brown colour. Then throw in your scallops, and fry all together for about three minutes and a half, taking care to shake the frying-pan all the time. Last of all, press them tight into shells or a dish, and brown them with a salamander, and send them to table.
No. 3—Clean and wash the scallops well, removing all the beard; take a quantity of stale bread-crumbs, grated and rubbed through a colander, and mix with it a little pepper and salt; cover the bottom of a dish with a layer of the bread-crumbs about a ^in. thick; on this lay the scallops, and cover them with more crumbs; on the top of this place some butter cut into small pieces. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty or thirty minutes, and finish by browning before the fire in a Dutch or American oven. They require plenty of butter.
No. 4.—Scallops browned: Wash the shells, rub them dry before being opened; put them into a saucepan, close covered, without water, until the shells open. Strain the liquor, take off the skirts (outer edge), leave on the red and black tongues; wash them in the strained liquor, freed from sand; butter the shells well, lay in as many scallops and crumbs of grated bread, with small pieces of butter, white pepper, mace, nutmeg, some of the liquor, well covered with grated bread-crumbs. Cook them in a Dutch oven until quite browned.
No. 5.—To stew scallops: Open, and separate the liquor from them, then wash them from the grit, strain the liquor, and put to the scallops a little mace, nutmeg, lemon peel, and a few white peppers. Simmer them very gently, and add a gill of cream, a little butter, and a little flour.
Source: The Country House ©1866

Below are two illustrations of scallops. The first is the scallop shell the second is the muscle (edible) part of the scallop and it's location in the shell.