Everyone knows about imitation crab (or “Krab”) made from fish and pressed/formed to somewhat appear crab like. What about imitation scallops? A guy I know in the food industry says that he’s seen scallops that aren’t scallops at all, but rather another fish (often a stingray of some sort) that are basically cut out into circular shapes and passed off as scallops. I challenged him for some sort of cite but he had none and just “knew it was done”. Some searching online turned up much of the same; no proof but lots of “It gets done, I’ve seen it!” stuff.
Anyone know the deal on this? If not, we can move this to Cafe Society and just get some good scallop recipes. Mmmmm, scallops.
The most recent thread I could find on this board, with links to earlier threads. But it still boils down to, “Yeah, I’ve heard that, too” but without a specific citation.
Many people have claimed scallops are cut from shark fin or processed fish. I’ve only been able to verify the existence of ‘scallop product’ in two forms. One where small scallops have been cut from larger ones culled for shape. The other type is made from processed scallop meat, and maybe something else, I couldn’t verify it. When cooked enough, it will unroll. A tape of processed ‘scallop’ meat has been rolled up to form the short cylindrical shape of scallops. The recut scallops lacked flavor, and had probably been frozen for a long time. The rolled up form was nearly flavorless.
I have heard this too - they are simply cut using a cookie cutter type of cutter from the wings of a ray or more often a skate. Since these are all the same family as shark it does not surprise me people mention shark too. The texture of skate wings would be a reasonable match, and it is a tasty meat.
My understanding is that it’s relatively easy to spot the difference between a real scallop and a fake one made from skate. The grain of the muscle in a scallop runs from top to bottom; the muscle grain in a skate’s fin runs from side to side.
I first heard this story about 50 years ago and I still wonder about it every time I eat scallops. I’ve noticed during the past few years, however, that scallops seem to be bigger than they used to be and are no longer as symetrical as they used to be. Instead of being round, barrel shaped, perfectly flat on the top and bottom, and identical in size, they are larger and more freeform in shape.
Well, it’s not like krab is really fooling anyone either. Can anyone honestly not tell the difference between an imitation crab stick and the real thing instantly?
Yep-I had a plate of them last week in a Gloucester (Ma) restaurant.
They actually are quite good though-almost better than the small scallops (many of which are imported from China-and I would NOT eat those).
In today’s NY Times (5/27/11) there was an article stating that some food scientists had analysed the genetic makeup of commonly sold fish in the US. Some 20-25% of it is mislabeled as a better fancier fish than it really is. For some high demand / high cost species, some 70% of what’s sold in the US is actually some other cheaper fish. Research revealed a similar level of fraud in Ireland.
Possible, but unlikely. Global scallop production (between aquaculture and wild-caught) comes to about 1.5 million tonnes, while global cod production comes to a little over 2.5 million tonnes (though it was once over 4 million).
For the common size cod caught and sold now, you won’t get many scallops from a cod’s cheeks, even the little Bay Scallop size. But those cheeks are not getting sold at cod prices anyway (most cod is sold cleaned, skinned, filleted, and headless), so if you can get scallop prices for the meat, go for it, just don’t mislabel it. I have a high level of expertise in seafood, so it would be hard to fool me about scallops, but there are many fish who’s meats can’t be easily distinquished by flavor, texture or color. Especially in a seasoned dish.
Possibly half of the world’s consumption of scallops, or possibly more, comes from frozen ones. If quick frozen on the ship, not frozen too long, and properly thawed, they are a reasonable substitute, and often economical. I find it difficult to see how a market for poorer quality ‘skallop’ exists. But then I can look at fast food chains and their redefinition of things like chicken. And I known in the food industry these days, nothing gets thrown away if it can be sold somehow.
All this talk about fish is making me hungry. Where can I get scrod?