Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A most generous tip indeed!

You must be thinking of abalone... scallops are free-swimmers. They drag a bunch of chains along the bottom to scare them up so the trawl can scoop them.

Thanks for the reply. It sounds like I cook them the right way.

Ya you betcha!

Great thread, KG. Kudos to your wife.

Good things happen to good people! Save some for June!

Yep, same here. As mentioned, locally we have fisheries for both bay and sea scallops. A few pics of both types from local outings. First couple of pics are with friends who dive recreationally for both lobsters and scallops. Here's a good sized one, but some get significantly larger.




Anatomy of a sea scallop.



The boys with a few of the bushels taken that day in Salem sound (MA).




I don't dive, so I just acted as boat tender in board that day, trying to hook a bluefish or bass while on top. I shucked too. Sadly, some of the catch brought up were 'lost overboard' while the lads were back down poking around on the bottom.




A few bay scallop pics from the Cape to follow.

Dang KG...

Trawling for bays. Significantly smaller than seas, but usually much sweeter. Seasonal here. In season they can bring $35 pp.







A guest deckhand some here might recognize.





Couple trawls' worth of these beauties.




Magic lies inside.



A freshly made batch ready to get torn up by the three of us. They are unbelievably sugary. About 2 seconds after this pic was taken, one of the skipper's hunting beagles launched onto the table and ate about half the plate of piping hot bays before Mike came out to grab her by the collar and toss her across the room. True story.

Yep, been there, done that down in Ensenada and further south. Big glass mugs full of them raw, with cockles and clams. Add chile and lime and whatever you want and go to town. Great eats and great fun down there back in the day. Think my days driving down from SD are over, though. IT wasn't too scary back then, but some places were definitely sketchy, especially at night.

And yes, I know you dig raw. I do too, as you know and shall see in a sec here.

Rooster, pan seared is pretty standard and I do it that way fairly often, especially if I'm feeling a little lazy. Don't take that the wrong way, please.

Your method is sound; just be careful to not overcook. Doing so won't necessarily ruin them, but they will get a bit rubbery when overcooked. Scallops go from a sort of translucent to opaque and much like a good steak, once one gets to know what to look, smell and literally feel for, cooking them is tits. Poke them with a finger. They should be springy, but a bit firm.

As far as 'mushy and fishy' scallops, ouch. Brother, you got rooked. I've never had either a mushy nor fishy smelling scallop. Ever. They should smell briny and somewhat sweet. Maybe more than a tiny bit nutty. You should've called the waiter over and said, 'these scallops are obviously bad and not fit for human consumption, and whatever ass is running the kitchen has no business being back there'. Send them back and leave. Foodborne illnesses from bad shellfish can be very, very bad.

JFC. I should've read through and saved myself five minutes. IB already got it right.

Again, the correct response. Good call on the avocado oil, BTW. Maybe try a couple drops of truffle oil or salted honey on a few. If you try the latter, use unsalted butter.

Thanks, Rocky. Hope you take her easy and heal up. Sorry to hear of your health woes.

I think that's true more often than not. On my case I'm calling it shît luck...

NP on saving some. BTW, you holding Stubbs hostage or what?

OK, a few shots of having a go at some of the recently prepared bounty. To say the quality is outstanding would be a gross insult.

Panco breaded scallops released into the oil.



A few grains of sea salt. No dip or sauce. None needed.








'Buri'. Same fish as what is known go sushi people as 'hamachi'. Only difference is size. Buri are the larger ones, those over 80 cm in Japanese fish circles. One of my favorites raw and cooked. This one was wild caught off of Japan.



The 'kama', which is the so-called fish's collar. They are unbelievable broiled.

The cuts after cleaning it up and skinning. Maybe 6 pounds of RTE flesh I got.




Wife made the sushi rice and I threw together lunch.

Some Japanese pickles, some miso soup and a cold brew made this meal another winner.

Hilarious part? When I, about drooling in anticipation, said, "OK darling, let's eat! I can't hardly wait!", she looked at me and said, "I was working with seafood for about every minute for 50 hours last week and I'm sick of it. That's all for you. I'm just having soup and pickles..."

SD is almost certainly correct on this, unless there are scallops that identify as abalone, oysters or mussels...

Someone needs to come up with a 'Scallop Dance' routine. For some reason watching them swim always cracks me up.

Wow! The vendors obviously liked your wife’s style and the way she interacts with other people, since they picked her to gift with the gourmet food.

I LOVE scallops. Rock scallops are my favorite, and I like them sliced about 1/3 of an inch thin and sauteed in butter for maybe 30 seconds on a side. Baked gently on the shell by a real chef with the right combo of spices is equally good. And… they are just GOOD, even raw.