When scallops are cooked right, they're melt-in-your-mouth buttery with delectably crisp edges. When they're cooked wrong, though, they have the rubbery, moist texture of something that was just plucked from the sea. To be fair, they were.
The part of scallops that we eat is actually a mollusk's adductor muscle, which they use to open and close their shells in order to swim. But they aren't meant to maintain their underwater consistency when being eaten — and if they are, you probably forgot to dry them before you placed them in your pan. When amino acids and reducing sugars meet in a hot pan, a chemical reaction known as the Maillard reaction occurs, browning certain foods and changing their flavor.
However, if there's too much moisture in your pan, your scallops will be steamed rather than pan-seared, leaving you without crisp, brown edges. Restaurants generally avoid this, and it's hard not to compare your worst scallops to theirs. But remember, they have a leg up with high-powered industrial burners that are able to quickly dispel extra moisture.
If you're determined to perfect your at-home seared scallop recipe , there are a few simple ways to do so: Buy the right scallops, dry them well, and salt them to draw excess moisture to the surface. Selecting and preparing the perfect scallops There are two main ways sea scallops are packaged in the grocery store: dry and wet. You want the dry ones, which are considered fresher.
Wet scallops are preserved with a sodium tripoly.