Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Scallops anyone?

Ah, sweet, delicate bay scallops!

When I was in college (back east) friends and I would snorkel and pick up a lot off the bay bottom. We would have a group scallop shucking at the dorm. Only about half of those little darlins made it to the bowl.

Nice cold November water too. By the time we went home at Thanksgiving we each had a gallon or more.

scallops punched out of stingray is vastly over stated.

There used to be a sweet, plump little French lady that had a cooking show on Maryland Public TV.

She did a show on crabcakes where she mixed up a batch made with lump backfin and pureed scallops for binder. I always wanted to try it, but never had the nerve. If it wasn't good, I'd be inconsolable over the waste.

What I've always heard is that they are punched out of skate wings, not stingray, but the next time I'm over in St. Michaels I'll ask the seafood dealer I know.

I hate you. Really, really hate you.

Need to buy some of these soon. Usually every few months we get them but it has been probably 9.

I checked Wiki and Snopes with no luck. I made an inquiry on Snopes, so maybe they'll come up with something.

Yahoo Answers came up with mixed results. Possibly the ones sold as "Ocean" scallops, the large ones with no little gristly part on the side are indeed, cut from the wings of skates, not stingrays. Bay scallops are the real deal.

Wiki notes that diver-harvested scallops are superior to dredged ones because there is less grit and they get to market more quickly.

No offense, but your getting your info from Wiki on scallops is a little silly. 'Get to market quicker'? Ummm, OK. I suppose one could argue that's true. If the guys I know that dive for them don't stop for a 12 pack and drive quicker to the wholesale buyer than the guys that dredge for them (most seafood buyers don't much care how the products come in, assuming it was legal).

Don't care if they are skate wings or stingray. If they are then they are one of my favorites, makes no difference to the taste buds.

Well yeah, I get what you're saying, but would you be happy paying $18.99 a pound for skate wings? Somehow, I think not...

Just reporting what the article said.

The part about the grit makes sense, anyway.

No, it doesn't. Grit is found in both hard shell as well as soft shell clams, mussels sometimes and very occasionally in oysters, and hell, in most any bivalve that sits at the bottom in a sandy, muddy or silty environment. But a gritty scallop? Nope. Not unless you're buying your scallops whole, which you're not. There should NEVER be any grit in scallops, ever. Why is that? Because in this country 99.99% of the time the damned things are already shucked when the end buyer gets them, and have been washed.

I've eaten scallops for 40 years plus, have shucked way more than my share of bivalves too and I don't recall ever having a 'gritty' scallop. It'd be a trick to even get a gritty scallop, save for one some clumsy shucker dropped in the sand before sending to market.

Not hating on you, just spreading the knowledge. Trust me on this.

The muscle composing the scallop isn't a part of the digestive tract, so there's no way ingested "grit" could be a factor.

How do you know when you've pissed off the bartender?

There's a string hangin out of your bloody mary.

How do you know when you've pissed off the itame-san?

There's grit in your fresh scallop.

Same as with recycled chew gum..

lol

That's 'itamae', demo wakatta tomodachi.

No, it's itame, whenudonnowhadafukurtalkinabout.

Lol

Ya, called the adductor muscles. That which holds the halves together.













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I went back to Wiki and checked the reference for the grit thing. The footnote referred to an article written about the Tasmanian fishery. Apparently outside of the U.S. scallops are often sold whole as the roe, known as coral, is also eaten. Here of course, only the adductor muscle is ordinarily consumed, so the scallops are shucked and as you stated, rinsed.

China and Japan both farm scallops, with China at least raising mostly Atlantic bay scallops. Whodathunkit.

Dirty rotten mother shuckers.

Yep, had them in Brazil one time when there on business - they had a orange'ish colored "appendage". I tried one with it and didn't care for it, so cut it off the rest before finishing.

Also, someone mentioned Costco, they also sell a bag of frozen ones that are pretty good - take some up to my mom every time I visit her in Arkansas.