Scallops | In Season

A fresh look at one of New England’s treasured seafoods.

First, there’s the matter of pronunciation. It’s “scawl-up,” not “skal-up.” You may already know this, but a proper accent will get you far with the old salts who harvest these sweet crustaceans.

Then there’s the matter of type. The common Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) is meaty and earthy, big as a Mallomar. You’ll find it at restaurants breaded and baked, fried, or seared until it gets a sweetly caramelized crust. The smaller wild bay scallop (Argopecten irradians), which thrives especially well among the eel grass in shallower areas around Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, and Nantucket Sound, is smaller, sweeter, rarer, and more expensive. (Farmed bay scallops are grown in bulk in Chinese aquaculture outfits, but can’t compare in quality.)

Both types represent one of the most delicious harvests of late fall and winter—bay scallop season tends to peak in the weeks before Christmas. They’re rich in omega-3 oils and vitamin B. They also act as natural filters, boosting ocean water quality by collecting bacteria, algae, and pollutants in their digestive tracts (the parts we don’t eat). They are jewels of the sea; nature’s idea of a perfect protein.

One word of caution for those cooking at home: For best flavor, avoid buying any scallops that are stored in a pool of milky white fluid. That’s sodium triphosphate, which makes the meat whiter and softer and more water absorbent. As scallops absorb the water, they grow heavier. So you’re paying for more water and less flavor. Look for “dry” scallops, naturally sand-colored and firmer.

Several of the following recipes are designed with sea scallops in mind. For bay scallops, we believe that less is more. Pat them dry (you can toss them with seasoned flour if you like) and cook lightly in a hot pan with a little butter. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and you’re done. Or use them in a simple pasta dish with a creamy shallot-wine sauce, or as a garnish for butternut squash soup.

Amy Traverso

Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.

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