Fake scallops

[storyguide3]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

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).

However only a small amount of that cod tonnage would be cheeks.

ETA: ninja’d

[kayaker]

@TriPolar

Where can I get scrod?

There is a house, just across the tracks. Tell the woman who answers the door that I sent ya.

[TriPolar]

@kayaker

There is a house, just across the tracks. Tell the woman who answers the door that I sent ya.

The traditional response is ‘I’ve never heard anybody use the future pluperfect tense before’. Works better with prudish and overly intellectual types. At the other end of the scale I just say 'Ask <insert name of reputed slut>.

[VernWinterbottom]

I used to work for a print shop near New Bedford, MA, the scallop capital of the east coast and the highest dollar value fishing port in the US.

We printed labels for frozen Skate Wings for one company. We were told that there was a big market for them in Europe. The labels we printed clearrly indicated this was skate.

For other companies we printed scallop labels. Some labels indicated the scallops were soaked in a chemical solution (the initials of the chemical, I forget). The chemical would whiten and help preserve the scallops as well as cause them to absorb more water and, hence, weigh more. Other labels were for untreated scallops.

It seemed at least on the processor/wholesale level, what was sold was labeled truthfully.

[ralph124c]

@TriPolar

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?

Those Chinese scallops (Trader Joes sells them) scare me. Much of the costal waters around China are polluted and contaminated (heavy metals, PCBs)-so a meal of Chinese scallops could be dangerous.
Is Chinese seafood safe, in your opinion?

[astorian]

Peter Benchley didn’t INVENT the legend, I’m sure, but in his novel Jaws, Matt Hooper goes on a rant about how most seafood restaurants that claim to serve scallops are really serving a cheaper fish that’s been cut into round pieces.

I’m sure that book did more to spread the idea than any other single source.

[TriPolar]

@ralph124c

Those Chinese scallops (Trader Joes sells them) scare me. Much of the costal waters around China are polluted and contaminated (heavy metals, PCBs)-so a meal of Chinese scallops could be dangerous.
Is Chinese seafood safe, in your opinion?

A lot of it doesn’t come from Chinese coastal waters. Atlantic coastal waters are also heavily polluted. It’s always a risk with seafood, there’s no guaranteed way to know where the fish was caught. So if you ask if Chinese seafood is safe, I can’t tell you. The packaging company may be Chinese, but you may not know where the critters came from. I wouldn’t not eat Chinese seafood just because a Chinese company packaged and shipped it. I’ve seen some pretty bad stuff come from the good ol’ US of A too.

[Bill_Door]

@VernWinterbottom

(snip)For other companies we printed scallop labels. Some labels indicated the scallops were soaked in a chemical solution (the initials of the chemical, I forget). The chemical would whiten and help preserve the scallops as well as cause them to absorb more water and, hence, weigh more. Other labels were for untreated scallops.

It seemed at least on the processor/wholesale level, what was sold was labeled truthfully.

That’d be sodium tripolyphosphate. It makes the scallops hold so much water it’s hard to get them to caramelize in the pan. You end up with scallops swimming in water. Avoid them like the plague.

[TriPolar]

@astorian

Peter Benchley didn’t INVENT the legend, I’m sure, but in his novel Jaws, Matt Hooper goes on a rant about how most seafood restaurants that claim to serve scallops are really serving a cheaper fish that’s been cut into round pieces.

I’m sure that book did more to spread the idea than any other single source.

Yeah, I think that was a meme that predates Jaws. I believe I first heard it as a child in the 60’s on the show To Tell the Truth, where the mystery person was a NYC food inspector. Even if it wasn’t in the movies, the book would have helped spread the story. It’s funny, because seafood restaurants usually don’t have skate wings lying around, and that’s not the way seafood distributors tend to rip off their customers, at least not in my experience.

[Turek]

@Bill_Door

That’d be sodium tripolyphosphate. It makes the scallops hold so much water it’s hard to get them to caramelize in the pan. You end up with scallops swimming in water. Avoid them like the plague.

aka STP (not the gas treatment).

Scallops that have been treated are known as “wet pack”. Always try to get “dry pack” scallops if you can. They’ll be pinker and firmer. (Thank you, Alton).

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

Heres a reference from 1971. It’s probably safe to assume it it showed up in print in 1971, it was a circulating factoid for sometime previous.

[Snake_Plissken]

While I have never purchased them, I was told in culinary school (Johnson and Wales) that artificial scallops were actually cut from monkfish.

[rat_avatar]

From

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_AtlanticSkatesReport.pdf
“Product forms:
Skates have a sweet, mild meat. Their “wings”, or flat modified dorsal segments, are the part
marketed for human consumption (NEFMC 2001). Skate wings may be marketed fresh or
frozen, skin-on or skinless. Only skates with a wingspan of 18” or more are sold as skate wings
(Avila 2002, as reported in Appendix I-A of NEFMC 2003).
Much skate is also marketed as baitfish (NEFMC 2003). Skates with a wingspan of less than
18”—called “dinner plates” by fishermen—are sold as bait, primarily to the East Coast lobster
fisheries. Bait skate may be sold fresh, frozen, or salted (NEFMC 2001).
There are ongoing reports that round pieces of skate wing, stamped out with a device like a
cookie cutter, are or have been offered for sale as scallops (Love 1996; Marco 2004). The sweet
meat of skates might be a culinary substitute for scallops, but the extent of this practice remains
unknown. New techniques for the genetic analysis of seafood may reveal the extent, if any, of
this rumored practice (Marco 2004).”