I sailed the Rappahannock a few times with a friend down to Deltaville VA. The Rappahannock was famous for their oysters too.

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Originally posted by steve davis

Shrimp were gone from here for 20 years and started showing up again in the late 60s.
My Dad and Erlin Eugley were the first to peddle shrimp outside of Maine back then.
Dad was a draggerman and caught his own to peddle.

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I remember when they were plentiful in Maine. Every week, trucks would show up in many towns to sell them during the season.

The Maine shrimp were small. They were also very sweet - I knew a couple of sushi chefs in Portland who had side businesses exporting them (and Maine sea urchin) to Japan. Very fresh shrimp of this variety make lovely sushi and yes, eaten raw.

I also used to like to make bisques and sauces with them, but cooked whole I always found them underwhelming - a bit soft and mealy in texture. Exception: cooked and cooled, they made a splendid shrimp salad for sammiches etc.

As Steve will attest, there's no season for them anymore, and there hasn't been for many years. It's not that there's no shrimp - it's that the waters in the Gulf of Maine have warmed to the point where the population can't be sustained. The stocks are now well north off Atlantic Canada.

and them shrimps make great bait !!!!!!

Anyone ever get any Royal Reds? Best peel-and-eat I've ever had, large and very sweet. We discovered them at The Blind Tiger, in Bay St. Louis, MS. which has my highest recommendation.

W.r.t. lobster, my Mammy made it clear that she ".... sure sure wasn't going to eat any of those insects!!"  I don't recall anybody offering her any shrimp.

I/we don't eat a lot of seafood, but scallops rank right up there for me .... especially the "world famous" Digby ones.    One time when we were touring in the region, we stopped to watch, and b.s. a little with the fishermen as they shucked (?) their morning catch.   One of the fishermen noted. with a wink, that although we were in Halls Harbour, NS, they would nonetheless be marketed as "World Famous Digby Scallops." 

Scallops have soared in price so that they are now, for me, a rare treat. In my 20s they were as affordable as shrimp.

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

Scallops have soared in price so that they are now, for me, a rare treat. In my 20s they were as affordable as shrimp.

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and i love them too 

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

Scallops have soared in price so that they are now, for me, a rare treat. In my 20s they were as affordable as shrimp.

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Scalloping is a tightly-regulated industry, at least here in the US. Supply and demand... and by golly, there's demand.

Scallops are another highly-perishable item - maybe a bit less-so than shrimp, but right up there. When they're super fresh they're delightful raw. Fortunately, I live in an area where I can get them that way.

Another factor is whether they've been treated or not. Super-fresh ones, handled by good fishmongers, sell them "dry" - as they come out of the shell. But for shipping, processers often soak them in a chemical brine that helps maintain their plumpness. You can usually tell by looking at them: if the scallops are in a somewhat milky-looking liquid, they've been treated; if they're just sitting there, they're likely untreated. The further from the coast you are, the more likely they've been treated - assuming they weren't frozen first. One of the downsides of the treated variety is that they tend not to get that lovely caramelized crust if sauteed in a hot pan.

Two additional scallop notes: where I live, we can get sea scallops pretty much year-round. But in the autumn, we can also get bay scallops. They're much smaller - maybe half to an eighth the volume of a sea scallops. They're sweet as candy. And they typically go for around $40/pound, which makes them a once-a-year treat for me.

The other thing that's interesting about scallops in the US is that it's extremely rare to see them with their roe sacks attached. That's the way they're usually sold in Europe, and I've seen them that way in Atlantic Canada. The roe sacks have the same lovely flavor, but a different texture. They're delicious, and it baffles me why they're not sold that way in the US. Seems terribly wasteful to me!

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Originally posted by eagleisland

quote:

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

Scallops have soared in price so that they are now, for me, a rare treat. In my 20s they were as affordable as shrimp.

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Scalloping is a tightly-regulated industry, at least here in the US. Supply and demand... and by golly, there's demand.

Scallops are another highly-perishable item - maybe a bit less-so than shrimp, but right up there. When they're super fresh they're delightful raw. Fortunately, I live in an area where I can get them that way.

Another factor is whether they've been treated or not. Super-fresh ones, handled by good fishmongers, sell them "dry" - as they come out of the shell. But for shipping, processers often soak them in a chemical brine that helps maintain their plumpness. You can usually tell by looking at them: if the scallops are in a somewhat milky-looking liquid, they've been treated; if they're just sitting there, they're likely untreated. The further from the coast you are, the more likely they've been treated - assuming they weren't frozen first. One of the downsides of the treated variety is that they tend not to get that lovely caramelized crust if sauteed in a hot pan.

Two additional scallop notes: where I live, we can get sea scallops pretty much year-round. But in the autumn, we can also get bay scallops. They're much smaller - maybe half to an eighth the volume of a sea scallops. They're sweet as candy. And they typically go for around $40/pound, which makes them a once-a-year treat for me.

The other thing that's interesting about scallops in the US is that it's extremely rare to see them with their roe sacks attached. That's the way they're usually sold in Europe, and I've seen them that way in Atlantic Canada. The roe sacks have the same lovely flavor, but a different texture. They're delicious, and it baffles me why they're not sold that way in the US. Seems terribly wasteful to me!

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I am sure our offerings here in Kansas are nearly always "wet", or when I ask if the scallops are "dry/untreated" and they answer yes then I am sure they frozen to ship.  Does flash frozen taste and cook better than slow frozen with scallops?  Do they flash freeze scallops?  I rarely see a scallop dinner here where the scallop are nicely browned.  Brad

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Originally posted by rinemb

 

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I am sure our offerings here in Kansas are nearly always "wet", or when I ask if the scallops are "dry/untreated" and they answer yes then I am sure they frozen to ship.  Does flash frozen taste and cook better than slow frozen with scallops?  Do they flash freeze scallops?  I rarely see a scallop dinner here where the scallop are nicely browned.  Brad

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Flash freezing is the best way to do it. This is how quality shrimp are handled, too. You may see them labeled as IQF, which means "Individual Quick Frozen".

Bear in mind that frozen seafood is sourced from all over the world, and that some sources are more diligent in how they handle the product from the moment it's caught. I've seen (and tasted) "bay scallops" from Asia; they look a lot like the native ones here on Cape Cod but they're invariably dry, chewy and flavorless. If you have access to IQF shellfish from anywhere in North America, you're probably going to get a quality product.

There are a number of online outlets who would ship IQF product to you out in the Great Midwest... packed in dry ice. But the shipping and handlng will probably cost more than the product itself.

Here in New England, we actually get a lot of lovely fresh finfish from Iceland. Because of the warming in the Gulf of Maine, many species such as cod are limited in numbers (and highly limited in catch quotas). Iceland doesn't have that problem. And frozen Icelandic stuff is good quality, too.

yeah i noticed my cans of (wild caught) tuna come from Vietnam !