Scallop
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| Family: | Pectinidae
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Scallops are the family Pectinidae of bivalve molluscs. Like the true oysters (family Ostreidae), they have a central adductor muscle, and thus their shells have a characteristic central scar marking its point of attachment. However, the adductor muscle of scallops is larger and more developed than that of oysters because they are active swimmers and the sole migratory bivalve. Their shell shape tends to be highly regular, recalling the archetypal form of a seashell.
Scallops may be attached to a substrate by a structure called a byssus, or cemented to their substrate (e.g. Hinnites spp.). They can also be free living. A scallop can swim by rapidly opening and closing its shell. This method of rapidly opening and closing its shell is also a defense technique, protecting it from threats. There is an audible whistling sound upon propulsion that the scallops make.
Life cycle
Scallops are hermaphroditic; capable of switching sexes. Both sexes produce roe, whose coloring depends upon the parent's (current) gender. Red roe is that of a female, and white, that of a male. Spermatozoa and ova are released freely into the water during mating season and fertilized ova sink to the bottom. After several weeks, the immature scallop hatches and the larvae drift until settling to the bottom again to grow. They reach sexual maturity after several years, though they may not reach a commercially harvestable size until six to eight years of age. Scallops may live up to 18 years, with their age reflected in the annuli, the concentric rings of their shells. Scallops migrate in large schools throughout the year.
On the east coast of the U.S., the availability of scallops has been greatly diminished by the overfishing of sharks in the area. A variety of sharks have, until recently, fed on rays, which are a main predator of scallops. With the shark population reduced, in some places almost totally, the rays have been free to dine on scallops to the point of greatly decreasing their numbers.
Taxonomy and list of genera
In total, there are around 350 species in the family Pectinidae, divided among more than 30 genera. While species are generally well circumscribed, their attribution to subfamilies and genera is sometimes equivocal, and there is minimal information about phylogeny and relationships of the species, not least because most work has been based on adult morphology (Barucca et al., 2004).
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Gathering scallops
Scallops were traditionally caught by dragging the seabed, but now in British seas there is a trade in scuba diving to catch scallops. Dived scallops tend to fetch better prices than dredged scallops because their shells are not damaged as much and there is much less rubbish mixed with the scallops.
Scallops in cooking
Scallops are a popular type of shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are characterised by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called "scallop" which is white and meaty, and the roe, called "coral", which is red or white and soft.
In western cuisine, scallops are commonly sautéed in butter, or else breaded and deep fried. Scallops are commonly paired with light semi-dry white wines. Generally speaking in the U.S., when a scallop is prepared, only the adductor muscle is used; the other parts of the scallop surrounding the muscle are ordinarily discarded. Sometimes markets in the U.S. sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the adductor muscle intact. Outside the U.S., the scallop is often sold whole. Scallops that are without any additives are called "dry packed" while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) are called "wet packed". STP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby getting a better price per unit of weight. The freezing process takes about 2 days.
In continental cuisine, scallops are often prepared in the form of a quiche or cooked and then set into a savory custard. In Japanese cuisine, scallops may be served in soup or prepared as sashimi or sushi. Dried scallop is known in Oriental cuisine as conpoy.
In a sushi bar, hotategai(帆立貝, 海扇) is the traditional scallop on rice, and while kaibashira (貝柱) may be called scallops, it is actually the adductor muscle of any kind of shellfish, e.g. mussels, oysters, or clams.
Scallops have lent their name to the culinary term scalloped, which originally referred to seafood creamed and served hot in the shell (Rombauer 1964). Today it means a creamed casserole dish such as scalloped potatoes, which contains no seafood at all.
Symbolism
Shell of Saint James
The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of Saint James the Greater and is popular with pilgrims on the Way of St James to the apostles shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Medieval Christians making the pilgrimage to his shrine often wore a scallop shell symbol on their hats or clothes. The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with him and would present himself at churches, castles, abbeys etc. where he could expect to be given as much sustenance as he could pick up with one scoop. Probably he would be given oats, barley, and perhaps beer or wine. Thus even the poorest household could give charity without being overburdened. The association of Saint James with the scallop can most likely be traced to the legend that the apostle once rescued a knight covered in scallops. An alternate version of the legend holds that while St. James's remains were being transported to Spain from Jerusalem, the horse of a knight fell into the water, and emerged covered in the shells.
- The Swedish word for scallop literally translates to pilgrim mussel.
- A French name for a dish containing scallops is coquille St. Jacques (in Québec, pétoncle is more commonly used).
- The Dutch name is Jakobsschelp (Jakob being Dutch for James).
Fertility symbol
One legend of the Way of St James holds that the route was seen as a sort of fertility pilgrimage, undertaken when a young couple desired to bear offspring; the scallop shell is believed to have originally been carried therefore by pagans as a symbol of fertility. [citation needed]
Many paintings of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and fertility, included a scallop shell in the painting to identify her; this is evident in Botticelli's classically inspired The Birth of Venus (which has even been nicknamed "Venus on the half-shell"[citation needed]).
Alternatively, the scallop resembles the Setting Sun, which was the focus of the pre-Christian Celtic rituals of the area. To wit, the pre-Christian roots of the Way of St. James was a Celtic death journey westwards towards the setting sun, terminating at the End of the World (Finisterra) on the "Coast of Death" (Costa de Morta) and the "Sea of Darkness" (ie, the Abyss of Death, the Mare Tenebrosum, Latin for the Atlantic Ocean, itself named after the Dying Civilization of Atlantis). The reference to St. James rescuing a "knight covered in scallops" is therefore a reference to St. James healing, or resurrecting, a dying (setting sun) knight. Similarly, the notion of the "Sea of Darkness" (Atlantic Ocean) disgorging St. James' body, so that his relics are (allegedly) buried at Santiago de Compostella on the coast, is itself a metaphor for "rising up out of Death", that is, resurrection.[citation needed]
Heraldry
The scallop shell symbol found its way into heraldry as a badge of those who had been on the pilgrimage to Compostela, although later it became a symbol of pilgrimage in general. Winston Churchill's family coat of arms includes a scallop, as does John Wesley's (and as a result the scallop shell is used as an emblem of Methodism). However, charges in heraldry do not always have an unvarying symbolic meaning, and there are cases of arms in which no family member went on a pilgrimage and the occurrence of the scallop is simply a pun on the name of the armiger, or for other reasons.
Logos
The multinational oil company Royal Dutch Shell uses a red and yellow scallop shell emblem as its logo.
State Shell of New York
The U.S. state of New York made the bay scallop its state shell in 1988.
Scallops in design
In design Scalloped edges or ridges refers to a wavy pattern reminiscent of the edge of a scallop's shell.
References
- Rombauer, Irma S. and Marion Rombauer Becker (1931 [1964]) The Joy of Cooking, p 369. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. ISBN 0-452-25665-8.
- Barucca M, Olmo E, Schiaparelli S, Canapa A (2004) Molecular phylogeny of the family Pectinidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia)
External links
- Bay Scallops - Cooking, eating, shucking, and harvesting with pictures and video
- Biology Photo of the Month: Scallop eyes
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game
- Research on Bay Scallop Aquaculture and Enhancement
- The Scallop
- Classification of Pectinoidea (Propeamussiidae and Pectinidae) - includes partly different genera, with subfamilies and tribes.