4 Tips for Cooking Scallops

Cooking scallops can be intimidating. Seafood in general, is pretty intimidating to cook. It often sticks to the pan, is expensive, and easily overcooked. But once you learn how to cook fish and shellfish, it is quite easy!

Scallops are a great seafood to try cooking if you haven’t yet and want to start cooking more seafood. They seem fancy and difficult, but are one of the easiest to cook.

To start off, what are scallops? Scallops are a type of shellfish that are typically harvested from cold ocean waters. They are characterized by their round, white, and tender meat, and are often used in a variety of different dishes, such as sautés, stews, and chowders. They can be eaten raw, cooked or pan-seared. They are rich in protein and low in fat. Scallops are often sold shucked, which means that the meat is removed from the shell and is ready to be cooked or consumed. My personal favorite way to make them, is by simply pan searing them.

Here are my four tips for better pan seared scallops!

1. Salt both sides of the scallop and place presentation side down on a paper towel to dry out. This will help prevent it from sticking to the pan. Moisture usually means the scallop will stick.
2. Use the mercury ball test / water test to know when the stainless steel pan is hot enough to add oil. You can check out my video on that here. If you add oil too early, the scallops will stick to the pan. Once you add the oil, wait until it is at it’s smoking point and very hot, then add the scallops. Cold pan and oil = stuck scallops.
3. Let the scallops naturally release from the stainless steel pan. Fish and proteins will naturally release once a crust is formed, don’t force them off! Flip them once they naturally release and they have a golden brown crust.
4. Once you flip the scallops, decrease the heat to low, add butter and aromatics and baste with the butter. This helps with flavor and prevents them from over cooking!

If you follow these steps, you will have the best scallops ever. You can check out my cookbook for a full scallop recipe and in depth video tutorial on how to pan sear scallops!