Grilled scallops and bacon: easy, or maybe not so much

Like most non-vegan Americans, I really enjoy bacon. As a kid, when mom made BLTs for all of us, I asked her to hold the L and the T. Mmmm, bacon sandwich.

But apparently unlike most, I find the trend of putting bacon on everything a bit much. It has its own strong flavor, more often competing with other tastes rather than complementing them. So, bacon on the side with eggs, great. Crispy bits in the potato salad, super. In a well-made BLT? As an adult, also great. But on top of a burger or chicken sandwich, or wrapped around everything imaginable? I’ll usually opt out.

So when brother Jay first served these bacon-wrapped scallops as a side at one of his Memorial Day cookouts, I eyed them with trepidation. Compared to bacon, scallops have a relatively delicate flavor. But I liked these. Something about the seasoning and lemon juice on the scallops blends well (for me) with the bacon.

When I made a recent birthday dinner for Jay (last week’s Lego forest on molasses cake recipe), I decided to try them as a side. I initially intended to make Nick Stellino’s “Scallops Parisa” that I’ve also previously written about, but Valley Seafood only had seven scallops left when I shopped. I figured the bacon-wrapped scallops would be a better side, with just one or two per person.

It seems like an easy recipe, but there is a trick to it: You need to fry the bacon on one side, enough that it’s pretty much done but not so much that you can’t wrap the bacon in a circle around the scallops. I thought I got it right with the first batch of bacon, but the strips started cracking and crumbling when I wrapped, so I finished frying them, enjoyed them as an appetizer, and fried a second batch.

It calls for one strip of bacon for two scallops, but if the scallops are big enough, as most of mine were, you may only be able to get one per strip of bacon, with the remaining bacon too short to wrap another scallop.

Lastly, I didn’t use toothpicks, I let the skewer pin bacon to scallop, thus allowing me to put scallop top and bottom directly to grill. Jay was there and said nothing, so I assume it was the way he did it. But in hindsight it occurred to me if you did use toothpicks you could run the skewer through the center of the scallops so only the bacon was exposed to the grill, thus cooking the bacon directly and being able to turn it as much as you want to get whatever level of crisp you prefer. Presumably, the scallops would still cook sufficiently, but since I didn’t try it I can’t confirm that.

“Dobru chut!”

Scallops Grilled with Bacon (Uncle Jake’s favorite recipes)

12 – 16 sea scallops, as big as you can get

At least 1 slice of bacon for every 2 scallops (6 – 8)

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt and pepper

Rinse scallops and dry on paper towels. Sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Fry bacon on one side only. Wrap each scallop with ½ strip of bacon, uncooked side out. Secure with toothpick. Thread scallops on skewers and grill over medium heat, 3 – 4 minutes per side until bacon is crisp.