Scallop Question

I received a great email question from a co-worker of Joels and thought I would post it here for fun:

Hello Rachael -

Hey - I have a question and Joel suggested you might know the answer. This weekend I made a scallop recipe out of Bon Appetit. Says to take the sea scallops, pat them dry, season and toss in a pan with olive oil on med-high heat. Done. Saute two minutes per side until browned. Well…they exuded so much liquid that there was no way they would have browned.

I had quite a few in the pan. Could that have been it? And, one of my friends told me that sea scallops are nothing more than bay scallops injected with liquid? Tell me it isn’t so.

Thanks for your help. I look forward to meeting and maybe cooking with you.

Thanks for your email. It is very difficult to brown scallops as they are mostly water. A chef friend of mine has a trick to brown them, which has never failed me. Next time you saute scallops, after you season them, dust them with Wondra flour. This is a very fine flour and is available at most high end grocery stores. I would recommend using med-high heat, however, I would caution against olive oil as it has such a low burn point. The olive oil and wondra combination could make the scallops burn.Instead I would suggest grapeseed oil or a combination of vegetable oil and olive oil.
If you have too many scallops crowding your pan, the scallops will steam instead of saute. Saute means to jump, so you are cooking quickly with high heat. Too many scallops will cool down the temperature of your pan and could cause problems. Make sure your pan that is already well heated before adding the oil. Then immediately add your freshly dusted scallops. If the scallops sit too long before cooking, they will need to be dusted again.
As for cooking time, this will largely depend on how big your scallops are. It is very easy to over cook scallops, so I would recommend watching them cook. You can see the color of the scallop change as it is in the saute pan. I will flip the scallop when the bottom third appears cooked. Flip again when this new bottom third appears cooked. They will most likely be done at this point, however, if you push the top or sides with your fingers at the scallop isn’t firm, cook for another minute.

To answer your scallop quality question, your friend is mostly incorrect. Sea scallops are generally larger and come from the open ocean. Bay scallops, which have a very short season, are smaller and come from the shallows and bays close to shore. Dry packed scallops are the nicer scallops as they have had nothing injected into them. Both sea and bay, depending on how they were harvested could have water or a solution injected into them.
Ok, there you go. Hope this is helpful. Better luck next time!