Scallop = stringray or shark

[snopes]

Comment: I have heard several times that the scallops that you get in the store or in a restaurant are actually plugs of stingray or shark. I've checked several sources online and see no conclusive or reliable answer. Is this true and if so, is there a way to determine whether or not what you're getting is a true scallop or not.

[TB Tabby]

So..instead of using the plentiful and easy-to-harvest genuine article, they're using a more rare and dangerous animal. Makes PERFECT sense.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

I've heard this too. Supposedly, the "real" scallops are very small. In the store, they might be sold as "bay scallops." The big ones, they call "sea scallops" and these are the ones that are supposed to be either shark or some kind of ray meat.

Some quick cites.

"Note: Unscrupulous restaurants sometimes palm off shark meat as scallops to unsuspecting customers"

"A 'faux scallop' made of shark is also available"

[Mr. Furious]

Well, I know of only one way to reliably test whether it's a real scallop or not. If, shortly after ingesting it, you see me hurtling past you at top speed toward the nearest bathroom, then you know you have the real thing.

[snapdragonfly]

I heard that also but I heard it was some quite common fish, not shark, which would make more sense. I agree that it would be ridiculous to sell off something even more difficult to harvest than scallops as scallops...that's kind of insane.

I have no idea if it's true or not and I don't remember where I heard it either. Lotta help, aren't I?

[Horse Chestnut]

I had heard the same thing, but the fish used was a skate. According to the New York Seafood Council, this is not true. (Scroll to the bottom of page to see the insert regarding "skate scallops").

[Signora Del Drago]

Since other people have provided cites, I'm not going to take the time, though I did provide some cites about this on the old board. It is true that fake scallops are sometimes sold. No doubt about it. When I was about eight years old, my aunt, whom we were visiting in Tampa, cooked a seafood supper one evening and at that time told me scallops were pieces of ray meat from the abdominal area. I was a teenager before I knew the difference. I really wasn't unintelligent, it's just that most adults can make most children believe just about anything, and I never thought of it again until years later. Yeah, I know, anecdotal, (but still true). Of course, it could be that she told me the "scallops" she had were the fake ones, and I just misunderstood what she said. The main way to tell the difference is that the shape of the fake scallops will be more uniform, and the texture of the fake ones is usually a little rubbery.

ETA: Bay and sea scallops, as well as calico scallops are real scallops, but substitutes may be sold as the real thing. http://www.foodsubs.com/Shelfish.html (This is the same as the cite provided above.)

. . .calico scallop (not as sweet) OR sea scallop (This is larger than the bay scallop, and less sweet and delicate. . .

[Dropbear]

Originally Posted by TB Tabby

So..instead of using the plentiful and easy-to-harvest genuine article, they're using a more rare and dangerous animal. Makes PERFECT sense.

Down this way the standard fish used in Fish and Chips is shark. Gummy Shark to be precise - also known as Flake. I've been eating it all my life.

Rare and dangerous? - not really.

Dropbear

[ganzfeld]

I suppose the ones we get in the shell are just repackaged in old clam shells?

[Signora Del Drago]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

I suppose the ones we get in the shell are just repackaged in old clam shells?

But of course!

By the way, leave it to you to come up with something like that!

[hambubba]

Shark is easily caught, plentiful, easy to clean. However, there is a substantial texture difference between shark meat and shellfish. Shark is nearly like beef in its texture. Barns is right on about that one.

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: ...is there a way to determine whether or not what you're getting is a true scallop or not.

The muscle fibers in a real scallop will be different than those in a ray or shark. When you eat a scallop, you are eating the adductor muscle which is striated. This is the muscle used to control the shells and it is very powerful. The fibers in this muscle always run lengthwise. If you take a fork (or fingers) you can easily pull apart this muscle. It should seperate like string cheese, leaving chunks that have split cleanly down the long axis. The ray and shark meat won't behave this way with the same manipulation.

scallops and sharks/skates/rays aren't even close...

it's like saying you have snail but really it's a piece of cow...

To say something is something its not?

I mean aren't there laws like that so that when I go to a resturant and order the stake they don't give me chicken? And so no, that's a sea stake, not a bay stake?

My brother once ordered salisbury steak and was quite annoyed to receive a haburger covered in gravey, but he was very very young at the time.

I do know some places might sell crab sticks or sea legs, and not let you know it's not actually crab, but I don't think they ever specifically say its crab meat.

Its possible there might be a processed "scallop" of which actual scallops are one of the ingredients, but I would think they would need some sort of accepted name to differentiate it.

The only exception to this rule I've heard is that some times you may order a crab cake and find that it is made with imitation crab. I think there is some actual crab in imitation crab, and since it is in cake form, you are still allowed to call it a crab cake.

But yeah, I think some organization like the american federation of scallopers or the attorney general of Florida might bring suit against someone passing soemthing off as something else.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Just last year, a local man was arrested for selling catfish as grouper.

"Salisbury steak" IS hamburger patties with gravy. The story goes it dates from WW II. That, I cannot say for sure. But I know what it IS, alright, having cooked it about a thousand times when I worked as a cook. When I made it, it was delicious, people commonly crawled 5 miles on broken glass to have some of it, but when other, lesser cooks make it, it might not be so nice.

I read somewhere that in Great Britain, it's not uncommon for rays to be served up in "fish-and-chips" shops between Land's End and John O'Groats -- could this be the inspiration for the story in question?