How To: Searing Scallops at Home

(Step 1 begins with picture 2) Step 5: Flip your scallops. Here you can see the nice sear we\'ve made. Once flipped, these can continue for another minute or so. Continue to picture 8 for a close up of the final product.

Step 1: Get good scallops. What\'s this mean? You want to look for \"dry\" scallops, if you can get them. This means that they haven\'t been soaking in salt water solution (sodium tripolyphosphate) which makes them take in water. It is that water that will leach out of your scallop when cooking and prevent you from getting a nice brown crust, effectively steaming your scallop instead. We picked up these scallops from Isaacson & Stein. We let them rest a bit on papertowel and patted them more than a few times to get as much moisture out as possible.

Step 2: We used an All-Clad pan that did *not* have a non-stick coating because we want our pan to be really hot. (Getting a non-stick pan that hot causes chemicals to leach out of the non-stick surface.) Medium high flame. We let the pan heat for a good minute.

Step 3: Oil! We chose olive oil Use enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan well. We let the oil get nice and hot - waiting until it just barely began to smoke a little. (Did we mention that you should maybe open a window? You should. Go do that quickly.)

Step 4: Right before you put the scallops in the pan, season them with some salt. You do not want to do it any earlier than this because that will cause water to leach out of your scallop, thereby ruining that crust we\'re going for. Don\'t overcrowd your pan or you\'ll drop the temperature of the pan too much to effectively brown the scallops.

Step 4 continued: So here are the scallops after 1 minute of cooking. DO NOT MOVE THEM. They aren\'t going to stick to the bottom, we promise. Once that brown, seared crust forms, they\'ll move easily. Hang tight!

Step 4 continued: After 1:45, our scallops are ready to be turned. This could be anywhere from 1:30 to 2:00 but you can tell as the color creeps around the edges. Go to the first picture in the series for Step 5.

Final product: Here you can see a close-up of the nice, brown crust. It may take a few tries to perfect but it is worth giving this a go at home. Serve them immediately, while piping hot.

Clean-up: So, here\'s the thing....your pan may end up be-speckled in cooked, brown oil. Don\'t fret. All-Clad recommends using Bar Keeper\'s Friend to clean your pans - it won\'t void your warranty, either.

Bar Keeper\'s Friend works its magic easily, with just some gentle scrubbing. Clean pan once more. You can see where it\'s removed the oil from the pan here.