November 12, 2021 • 47 mins
These mollusks are prized for their delicate meat and divine shells alike. Anney and Lauren dip into the history, aquaculture, and biology of scallops.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to favorite production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelvom, and today we have
an episode for you about scalops. Yes, and we're all
very excited about this. Oh my goodness, we are. Um.
I they're one of my favorite foods. Oh me too.
I love scalots. I love like a just saute a
little butter, little lemon, maybe some parsley. Yeah, it's simple,
(00:32):
just a just a quick sear, like right, just a
tiny bit of salt and that's all you're really They're
so good and they are one of the things you
were talking about poutine on a menu, um, being one
of the things that like you just stop and like
that is as far as you get. That is how
I feel about scalops, Like like I will read the
rest of the menu out of like respect for the kitchen,
(00:56):
but like I'm going to order the scallops. It's pretty
much for conclusion. Yeah. Yeah, It's It's funny you say that,
because when you become like pretty good friends with someone,
I would say, we're very good friends, Lauren, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and we certainly have been to any number of restaurants together. Yes,
and I can be like probably dealing superproducer, Dalon and
(01:18):
Lauren are going to get these scalops and maybe I
can get a bite. But it's like one of those
things I'm like pretty sure that's what they're gonna get. Yeah, Yeah.
I always appreciate that, like like walking into a place
with a yeah, with someone that you know that well
and being like, Okay, all right, I don't have to
order that because I know they're gonna right exactly. The
(01:42):
thing is, those scalops are one of those I mean,
you're always very kind and share, but it is one
of those foods when you get your like get your
own scallops friends, because you don't normally get too many. Sure,
sure and in order. My little brother was like that
as well before he became vegetarians. Always scallops or the
thing he was going to get, like no matter what.
(02:05):
Um And they definitely they when I see them on
a menu, it's probably I'm gonna go that way. Oh
they're so good. And also, you know, listeners, we love
talking about some strange marine Oh my heck. And I
(02:27):
didn't there there there weren't enough hours in the day today.
I was really trying to fit but there's also so
many different species and they're so weird that I'm just like,
there wasn't I couldn't. I'm sorry. Um oh, no need
to apologize. It's a lot, but definitely listeners. If you
(02:48):
have not looked up a picture of a scallop of
like a live, scalive scalop in the wild, look it up,
look it up. Yep, yep, we're so uh, I mean
we're going to get into that. Yes, I'll save it,
so excited I'll save it for then, I'll save it
(03:09):
for them. Um, we've we we have done. Yes, we
have done other uh see creatures before the the oyster
fairly related, also a bibalve yes. Um. Also we've done
the lobster, crawfish, crayfish crawl daddy crabs kind of related.
(03:30):
Snails snails kind of related, although we usually eat land
snails not sea snails. But sure, yeah yeah, and then
we've done a bunch of fish. But I would say
these are definitely the ones that are closest in terms
of yeah shellfish related, sure, sure, yeah, yeah yeah, But okay,
let us get to our question. Let us scallops. What
(03:58):
are they? Oh my heck? Uh Well Scallops are yes,
a type of seafood, a shellfish indeed um and the
part most often eaten here in the United States anyway,
is um a white to pinkish white disc of muscle
that when it's raw, is very tender and a little
bit translucent um, almost almost like a jelly, And that
(04:21):
when you cook it, um, it'll firm up to being
kind of opaque and chewy the longer that you let
it go. The flavor is on the delicate side. Um,
sweet and briny and rich. Mm hmm so good. Yeah,
delicate is a good word for It's like, oh yeah, yeah, no, no,
(04:43):
this was a very serious craving episode. I like, I
started thinking, Oh, I just started thinking about them. I
started thinking about having them in um in sushi, and
right just like that nice seer we were talking. Okay, anyway,
um u uh. Scalops the animal are a bi valve,
(05:04):
meaning they've got a shell composed of two halves that
are hinged at one end. And there are a whole
bunch of different genuses and species um within the family
pectmier Um that are all referred to with scalops, and
they all have slightly different biologies and lifespans and life patterns.
(05:25):
Some of them are hermaphroditic and some uh, some are not.
There's a whole bunch of different things going on with scalops.
There's a whole bunch of different things going on with scallops, y'all.
Now that is a shirt or fellow I've heard one
so true, though, Yes, a whole bunch is going on.
(05:45):
Oh heck. Um. They are really interesting, like they are.
They are a lot more complex than, for example, an oyster. Um, right,
and so much so that I didn't really get to
delve as far into it as I wanted to today. Um.
But but basically what you're looking at, um is within
these these two halves of a hinged shell. Um, you've
(06:09):
got this this large muscle um. Then surrounded by a
kind of meaty mantle and some guts and some gills
and some gonads um, and then uh, you know, some
nervous system kind of stuff, and then um peeking out
at the outer edge of the shell, Um, you've got
these tentacles, these small tentacles um that they used to
(06:32):
you know, sense what's going on around them. Um. And
a large number of eyes um, like as many as
two hundred eyes situated around the edge of their shell
and um. In some species they are colored bright blue,
like bright bright bright blue, which is very striking in photographs.
(06:53):
Also very striking in photographs is the fact that, um,
that they're mirrored. Um they've got these little mirror uh,
a little bit inside of their eyes that help the
eyes work, um, And so they're quite reflective, yeah, in photographs.
So when a scalop is looking at you in a picture,
that's that's had a flash. It's just it's very It's
(07:14):
a lot it is, and look it up. I'm telling you,
you've got to see it. I don't think I knew.
I don't think I was aware neither. It was news
to me. But I'm glad that I know now. Yeah.
Um so gosh, I yeah, I really Okay, Okay, it's
(07:35):
a different show. It's a different day anyway. The shells,
the shells um. They're typically roughly circular in shape, with
a with a flat end where right the hinge attaches
the two halves. Each half is a shaped like a
like a shallow dish. Sometimes one will be deeper than
the other so that the creature can like sit in
sand and present like a relatively unobtrusive, flat profile up
(07:56):
to the world. But anyway, UM. In some types the
shells are smooth, and in others they have these deep
ridges or ribs radiating outward UM, with the hinge being
the focal point UM, sort of like a hand fan,
you know. And UM. The word escaloped meaning ridged in
(08:17):
like slopy little dips um comes from the shape of
these shells. UM. The shells can come in a wide
range of colors, from white to oranges to Purple's really pretty,
really um, and their shells are continually growing. You can
count the rings radiating outward from the shells hinge to
estimate how many years old escalop is like a tree.
(08:40):
Oh yeah, it'll take a few years for scallops to
reach what's considered full size for harvesting. How long that
will be will depend on the type of scaloping question. UM.
For just for example, for Atlantic sea scalops, it's like
three to four years, but you can let them go
a lot longer, like they can live up to about
any years or more UM and get kind of large.
(09:03):
Scalops can produce millions or hundreds of millions of eggs
every year. UM. And we'll breed by releasing them out
into the water column and um and and similarly, males
or um things that are creating sperm at that moment
will release their sperm, and then it's just sort of
like well, hopefully the sperm and the eggs find each
(09:25):
other and result in fertilized eggs that hatch as larva,
though apparently one in a million or fewer of those
uh eggs will get fertilized and go on to reach adulthood.
Wow yeah, yeah, shotgun style, you know. Go. Those larva, though,
(09:46):
will float around for a month or two before starting
to grow their shell and then uh falling and settling
on the seafloor, though they don't really settle in um
generally like a like say oysters do, which if you're
if you're going out and getting like a wild oyster,
you gotta hammer it off of the rock um that
(10:06):
that the shells have attached themselves to. Uh. Scallops are
a lot more mobile than that. Um. They can earn,
most of them are. Most of them can swim and
swim pretty fast and thus avoid predators like starfish, which
will use their weird limbs to pry a shell apart
and then disgorge their stomach into the shell and then
(10:29):
liquefy the bi valve and then suck their stomach back in.
It's terrifying. Starfish aside, couldn't help myself. I'm sorry and
or welcome. Thank you, thank you putting that in there. Um,
I feel like you've got some very specific experience slash
(10:52):
memories of this. I it's just one of the things
that I'm like, well, that's really borked nature. Thank you.
Oh yeah. Also again highly recommend looking up footage of
scallops smoothing. Pretty cool. Yeah, it's super cool alright. Anyway, Um,
(11:15):
we're a food show again allegedly so yeah, certainly here
in the States. Um, the part that you probably think
of when you think of scallops is food. Um. That
that thick, meaty white disk is the scalops um adductor
muscle um, which it uses to open and shut its
(11:38):
shell um, though it never completely closes, unlike say clams
or muscles or oysters. And if you think about the
similar muscle in any of those bi valves, UM, you'll
get an idea of how the two animals are. Two
types of animals use them differently because in those other bivalves. Um.
That muscle is used to hold the shell shut tight
(11:59):
most are all of the time. Um, it's a stiff,
fibrous a little bit that we pretty much just cut
through in order to open the shell and eat the
meaty bit the mantle. Um. But scalops right don't sit
in one place once they mature. Usually they swim by
fluting water through their shell, which they do by flexing
(12:22):
that muscle. And so that's why it grows so large. Um.
But but the whole scalop is edible. If you get
them a hole or or live um. They might have
a purse of a bright orange row in the shell
that can also be eaten raw or cooked. Um. It'll
still have that mantle attached, Smaller and tougher than in
some of those other bivalves, but still tasty. You can
(12:45):
you can tenderize it and serve it raw as like
a like a sashimi, or you can dry it out
for for use um in in snacks or or powders um.
Or you can cook it into soups or stews. So tasty.
One of my favorite, one of my favorite Isakaiah's um
in Atlanta. Show you has a dish of like when
(13:05):
they get live scallops in where they'll they'll they'll you know,
take the good scalop bit and serve it as sashimi,
but then also serve you the rest of the scalop
like cooked up with like like like into kind of
like a like a broth that you just kind of
like slurp out of the shell. Oh my goodness, it
does sound good. Yeah. Um. Whoa, what about the nutrition
(13:34):
by themselves? Scallops are pretty good for you. High in protein,
a little bit of fat, good smattering of vitamins and minerals.
They will help keep you going, I would say, to
fill you up. Um, you know, probably pair with a vegetable.
Always eat a vegetable. Um. Some recipes for scalops can
involve a lot of butter or cream, so like watch
your serving sizes there. But you're okay, You're okay, yeah,
(13:59):
yeah uh um. And we do have some numbers for you. Um.
A lot of these are pretty US specific, but um.
The scalping industry is hugely important to the U. S.
East Coast. In the value of the commercial scalp industry
in and around Maine was fivety two point nine million
dollars UM. And this was a huge increase, up one
(14:22):
hundred million dollars from alone. Yeah, and it went even
higher in twenty nineteen, up to UM five and fifty
nine million UM, which placed it second only to lobsters
in term of catch value in the region. UM. They
are what some fisher people, fisher folk, um, aquaculture humans
(14:44):
um referred to as a high ticket item. UM. A
single scalop can sell wholesale for around three bucks. Wow. Yeah, okay, UM.
I so when we were doing this episode, I was
looking for scalops, you know, perhaps obviously, and I couldn't
find any. And I found some, I did not buy them,
(15:04):
but I found something that were frozen, that were bacon
wrapped scallops. And I was like, frozen and already wrapped
in bacon. Yes, you know maybe if I I'm not
opposed to it. I was just a little reflexed. I mean,
have you had a bacon wrap scalop? I have not.
(15:25):
Oh all classic pairing, very very like like late eighties,
early nineties, like the surf and turf. Yeah, totally totally.
It's it's it's super good. UM. I highly recommend it,
but um, it can be it can be a lot
be like, you really have to get the texture of
(15:46):
both right, otherwise it's kind of like soggy and chewy,
which is not what I want from that experience either. Wow,
any gate, UM, But the price was very high, as
was the point I was securitously trying to get to sure. Yes. Yes,
(16:10):
the value of mains scalp fishery was estimated to be
just under two million dollars in two thousand and two,
and that was a drop from when it was valued
around ten million dollars, which that drop sparked a push
for some protections and changes around scalping in the region.
And we're going to get into that in the history section. Yeah. Yeah,
it's it's been called like a like a true success
(16:32):
story UM in the in the fishing industry, and it's
been so important to that region that UM that that
a lot of research is still being done UM and
and with special programs in place to help it along.
For example, of the allowed wild sea scalop harvest in
the Atlantic, one point to five million pounds are sold
(16:53):
specifically to fund that research UM through this initiative called
the Scalop Research Set Aside Program UM. And I'll say
that that is a really tiny amount, like a few
hundred million pounds are caught every year, So it's but
it's nice. It's just a nice you know, fishers, fishers helping,
helping the industry out. Yeah, m hm. And scalping is
(17:14):
not just important to the East coast. Here in Alaska,
the long term average harvest of weather vein scalops from
about fourteen was around six hundred thousand pounds are about
two hundred and seventy three thousand keylows and uh, and
we import a lot to um, some three hundred million
dollars worth every year because yeah, different species grow in um,
(17:38):
different kind of cool ocean regions around the world. Mm hmm.
Research conducted from eighteen estimated that the C. Scalop population
was around thirty four million thirty four million individual sea
scalops um. Because of the way scalps work, the population
of them, and the reasons behind any decreases sort of
(18:00):
the sea equivalent of the canary in a coal mine, Like,
they can service early indicators of a problem in the environment.
I think we talked about that with oysters as well.
Just because of how they function, they can be a
really good indicator of any kind of issue. Um, but
as we've been talking about, we did see a pretty
(18:22):
massive decrease of scallops here, but also some successful policies
put into place that really turned that around. Yeah, and
we are going to get into all of that history
and more, but first we're going to pause for a
quick break for a word from our sponsor. We're back,
(18:50):
Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So scallops are believed
to have evolved over two hundred and forty five million years.
Uh huh yeah, yeah, uh, so we're not going to
go into all that. Um, this is going to be
the longest episode strapping We've got a lot to say
(19:14):
about the oops. Um. Researchers have found scalop fossils dating
back to the early Cretaceous period about one tred million
years ago. But yeah, they've survived quite a lot hum hum.
As we've discussed in previous episodes, when it comes to food,
researchers believe that humans who have had access to mollusks
(19:37):
like scalops have been eating them since forever. Yeah yeah um.
And also, just like we've discussed before, the history of
this one is really tricky to trace because a lot
of different names were used for scalops throughout the written record,
and the name scalop was also used to refer to
(19:58):
multiple mollusks that we're not scalps, Nope, nope, So that's fine, yep, yep,
And then just think about scaloped dishes that were right, Yes,
scalops can be scalloped. Um. Some stories believe that the
(20:18):
term scaloped originated it was to describe foods that involved cream,
butter and bread crumbs baked and served in scaloped shells.
But there's perhaps a surprising amount of discourse on this. Yeah,
like future episode perhaps, but people have a lot of
(20:39):
thoughts about what this means from into that. Yeah, all right.
In the Three Specie Greek philosophers Xenocrates wrote about scallops, quote,
grilled and served with vinegar and silphium. They tend to
loosen the bowels owing to their excessive sweetness. They are
(21:00):
you see here, and easier to digest if they are baked. Okay,
all right, all right, Yeah. Aristotle wrote about scalops, describing
how he believed they were better when caught in the spring,
which is when they spawn. I believe are at that
time what scalps. He was writing about when they spawn.
(21:20):
Um records indicate that scalops were enjoyed by the ancient
Romans and they were sometimes used in souflay like recipes
at the time. All right, I'm into that me too.
Some sources suggest that folks in Florida were harvesting base
scallops all the way back to the ninth century CEO
(21:42):
UM And and now a note on scallop shells and art,
because okay, scalop shell motifs in European architecture and art
and objects date back to ancient Greece and Rome um
and during medieval times they really boomed in popularity, it
(22:03):
seems as a symbol um starting around the twelve hundreds
and then kind of really ramping up in like the
fourteen hundreds. Yeah, scalop shells just started appearing everywhere in
art and architecture as symbols of strength or protection, of
birth or rebirth of femininity and um Christian pilgrimage, in
(22:23):
which case they're especially associated with the Way of Saint James,
which is this pilgrimage mirroring the journey of one of
Jesus disciples. Like the Mediterranean scalops, a specific type of scalp.
It's taxonomical name is a reference to this. Um it's
pectin jacobious, which it's not James the Sis or something
because of some interesting things related to Germanic terms for anyway.
(22:47):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, just scalops everywhere everywhere. Um, Like
that shell that Botachelli's venus is rising up from is
a scalop shell. Uh if once you start looking for it,
you will see it everywhere. Yes, And once you brought
this up, where did my mind go? Immediately SpongeBob SquarePants
(23:12):
and I think I think there are some well I
have no idea what you're talking about, but that's delightful.
We still, I guess, I guess I still need to
watch that show, and we still need to do an
episode about it. So I am excited for that, forthcoming, forthcoming, forthcoming. Indeed,
(23:33):
um well, scalop art aside, Yes, a popular way to
eat scalops in the seventeenth century was to chop the
meat up, combine it with bread crumbson sauce, put it
back in the shell, and back it up, which sounds
kind of like that scaloped term h or kind of
the agreed upon definition that I very superficial. I won't
(23:54):
say I went too deep into this, but I kind
of the agreed upon definition of what that means. UM
also sounds still just to me. Between the sixteen hundreds
to eighteen hundreds, several recipes for stewed scalops started showing
up in English cookbooks and a few in neighboring areas
as well. The English work Castle's Dictionary of Cookery, with
(24:16):
numerous illustrations, had this entry on scalops. The scalp is
a shellfish somewhat larger than an oyster and somewhat resembling
it in shape. It is something like a crab and taste.
It may be served in two or three ways, and
is generally highly esteemed. Where it is known, the scalop
may enter appropriately into any fish pie, though it should
(24:37):
be boiled previously. It is best when scalped. The deep
shells of the scalop carefully preserved after they are used,
and will be used when it is wished to scalop
the remains of dressed fish of any kind. Well, I
feel like this is like that buffalo sentence, like yes, yes,
(25:04):
I was reading this, like what wish to scalop? I
love it? Um, and then Castle's New Universal Cookery Book
out of updated it with this note. We should add
that scalops, when not in good condition, are most objectionable
and flavor and also very unwholesome. Cost about a penny each.
(25:32):
No good note, good note. Fresh fresh seafood is best. Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know that I've ever had a bad scalop,
but I absolutely believe that they are bad. Yes. In
nineteenth century North America, scalops ranked below oysters, lobsters, and
clams in terms of desirable New England shellfish, so people
(25:53):
really didn't prefer them if given a choice. Though there
were some earlier mentions of scalops, they really didn't start
growing up in New England cookbooks on a regular basis
until the eighteen seventies. Oyster men out of Connecticut are
thought to be some of the first attap the commercial
market for scalops in this country, helping to foster taste
for them in nearby New York. Scalping was officially recognized
(26:16):
in the US in the eighteen eighties. Rhode Island was
the top producer at this time. Um and commercial scalopers
often implied women to open the shell and remove the
and remove im pack the meat for sale. Um. And
before diesel engines came onto the scene. Uh, usually people
use drags on sailboats to get the scallops. Mains commercial
(26:40):
industry coalest in nineteen hundred when the gasoline engine became
available and I guess speaking of gasoline um. And also
one more art note, um, what would become the Shell
Oil Company was named for the seashells among other goods
that the company are which only was importing from Asia,
(27:03):
also including petroleum products and shells. Scalop logo, that is,
a scalop shell on its logo, was first debuted in
nineteen o four. I did not know that. Ye did
not know that? Huh. Well, it took several decades for
the scalping industry to really take off in the US.
It wasn't until the nineteen twenties and thirties some improvements
(27:24):
in transportation and the discovery of sea scalops at George's
Bank that allowed for the transport of both bay and
sea scalops across the country. That scalops. All this substantial
growth in popularity here still um, they had a bit
of an awareness reputation problem. Perhaps Take this quote from
(27:46):
George Frederick's Seven Long Island Seafood Cookbook. The seas are
full of both fearful and beautiful things, but none lovelier
than the fluted shellfish, the scalop. The scalp is also
I believe i'll misrepresent did fish. Oh and I and
I and I didn't mention this the top. But um,
(28:06):
but if you're unaware of the kind of essential difference
between base scallops and sea scalops, yes, location is one
of them. But but base scalops tend to be the
small ones that you find maybe, um, maybe the size
of a of a small coin. Um, and uh, the
sea scalops are usually much larger. So yeah, there you go. Um. Meanwhile,
(28:27):
Japan started up its scalop aquaculture programs in the nineteen
fifties and um and a lot of the technologies being
used to this day um all around the world are
from those programs. In Theodora fitz gibbons nineteen seventy six
book The Food of the Western World, fits Gibbon claimed
the most familiar species in British waters of scalop was
(28:48):
the great scalop, and that it was superior in taste
to the American variety of scalops, which I was kind well,
I see people like throughout history, people would write in
and they would really weigh in on this um, which
did make me laugh. Also, Um, I'd forgotten about you know,
base gallops, that they're nice fried like a like gentle fried.
(29:12):
Oh yeah, yes, yes. In the nineteen seventies and eighties,
some folks started using scooba gear for a scallop collection.
Women were key and gathering base gallops during summer seasons
in Florida in the nineteen seventies to um. So they
would wade into the water with these wooden boxes that
(29:35):
had clear glass bottoms called scalop boxes, and they would
spend hours collecting these scalts before returning home to shuck
and clean them. Um. And it was really interesting because
allot of this information I got through various maritime museums
in Florida. Yeah, yeah, which I just was like, Oh,
(29:55):
I love that this is like a museum exhibit I
could go and learn. Yeah. Now I feel especially yeah,
like I don't think I've ever been to a museum
in Florida that specifically talked about the history of scaloping. Well,
we've got to fix that. Yeah, yeah, I guess to
be fair, I was mostly on the East coast. But anyway, Yeah,
(30:19):
this brings us to modern times and sort of the
decline and then subsequent increase of scalut population. We were
talking about UM because scalut populations did experience a pretty
significant decline due to coastal development, over fishing, declines in
sea grass, and climate change around Landings for scalops began
(30:42):
steadily dropping, though they have been on the decline since
the nineteen seventies about UM, and there have been a
lot of efforts to combat this. Some of the first
over fishing regulations around scalps in the US went into effect,
including the implementation of a scalping season and limits on
the amount of scalops that could be fished. Commercial harvest
(31:04):
and sale. Base galops in Florida were banned completely in
The Sustainable Fisheries Act was enacted in nine and the
Magnusen Steven's Fishery Conservation and Management re Authorization Act was
enacted in two thousand and six. The federal government introduced
an overfishing level of one point to nine million pounds
(31:25):
of shucked scalp meat an annual catch limit of one
point one six one million pounds, and there have been
multiple studies about the longevity of scalops and ways to
improve their numbers. The Maria Mitchell Association the m m A,
and Nantucket Shellfish Association or the n s A launched
a long term study of base gallops in the area.
(31:47):
In two thousand three, in the Fish and Wildlife Research
Institute launched a ten year project to boost the population
of base gallops along the Florida Coast to a self
sustaining level. And these are just a few examples. There
are plenty more, yeah, and some of these initiatives have
produced promising results. From two thousand eleven, the American scalping
(32:12):
industry saw a massive comeback UM twelve to fifty eight
million pounds harvested during that time, the industry value going
from seventy six million dollars to five and seventy nine
million dollars over that time. In twenty nineteen, America had
their largest harvest of scalps since eighteen with fifty eight
point to million pounds, the fifth highest harvest in history.
(32:35):
UM that was at the time. I'm not sure if
something has surpassed it since then. But big increase. Yeah yeah, yeah, um,
and that I believe is talking about sea scalops right, Um.
Kind of going back and forth with some of these things. Um,
but but yeah, just overall, Um, there's still, as we said,
a lot of research going into it. And yeah it's
pretty promising. Um. You know, uh, farming a phil there,
(33:00):
feeding water column breeding animal like a scalop is is
a pretty great thing to do for a few reasons,
um one, or like better than some other aquaculture for
a few reasons. UM One, they eat phytoplankton, which is
a microorganism that's pretty good at sustaining its own populations
(33:21):
um out in the sea or ocean or bay or etcetera. Um. Also,
they helped literally filter the water, improving the quality of
their environment wherever they live. Um. Also, some research suggests
that the presence of scalop farms might help bolster wild
scalop populations because of the way that they that they
(33:41):
spawn freely out in the water. Um you know, maybe
mixing with wild scalop spawn, maybe increasing fertilization of both populations.
Good stuff, good stuff. And speaking of there is still
research being done into scalops eyes. Okay, talking about it.
(34:04):
We did. It's so cool, okay. So, um, their their eyes. Um,
they're up to two eyes. Um. Every every eye that
a scalop has um each will will use a congcave
mirror made up of a mosaic of tiny square crystals
in order to focus incoming light onto the eyes retina.
(34:28):
Our eyes have a have have squishy lenses that that
do that light focusing thing. Right. Yeah, but okay, in scalops,
the retina of each eye is double layered, so that
depending on where the light is coming from into the eye, um,
whether it's right in front of the scalop or towards
the periphery, UM, the mirror can help focus the light
(34:52):
onto one or the other of the retina's two layers,
and thus the scalop can still get a good look
at what's going on around it either way. Um. We
do this by you know, like looking around. But um,
but but scallops you know don't have like eye sockets.
They can't like like turn like we can necessarily. So yeah,
And furthermore, that mosaic structure of those little light focusing
(35:21):
um crystals that form up into that concave mirror, that
mosaic structure is pretty much exactly what we use in
reflecting telescopes in order to focus light. So it's so interesting. Yeah,
(35:41):
and like there's right, Yeah, there really is still a
whole bunch of research being done into it, and I
am delighted by every single bit of it that I've read. Um, yes,
I mean just imagine having I see I feel I
feel like parsing information from my two eyes is often difficult.
(36:04):
I'm going like, oh gosh, like like there must be
some really interesting, uh like data sifting going on in there,
like surprisingly complex for such a relatively simple animal. Yeah,
I wonder you know. There's a type of zombie in
the Last of Us two Yeah, called the shambler and
(36:30):
is mostly eyes. And I'm always like, what happened here
and didn't run away quickly because they're not to be
trackled with. Yeah yeah, anything with that many eyes, I'm like, mmmmmmmm,
(36:51):
I can't escape cherubim. Well, biblical angels have lots of
eyes as well. Anyway, Yes, anyway, look it up. You
haven't if we haven't convinced you, go look up their eyes.
It's cool, mostly scallops. Yeah, I mean you can look
up with the other stuff too, if you want a nightmare.
(37:13):
Look up the Chambler. Also, they're at King from Last
of Us two. Um. But anyway, I think that's what
we have to say about scallops. That is that is um.
We do. We do have some listener mail for you,
we do, but first we have one more quick break
for word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(37:39):
thank you. We're back with snow. That's about how they move. Yeah,
I think we're perfectly captured it through the miracles of
sound production. Yes, um and pure pure raw chalnge. We
(38:05):
definitely painted a picture. Definitely. Yes. David wrote jes listen
to your White Chocolate episode and I could so relate
with Lauren about the Alpine White candy bar from Nestley.
I loved that candy bar as a kid, and it
just makes me so sad that it does not exist anymore.
I would, as a little kid, break off the pieces
(38:27):
and just let it melt in my mouth so yummy.
I try to eat things like the Hershey's gold bars
from a few years back, or the Cookies and Cream bar,
but they just don't cut it, don't you Nessley, do
you do? Heck? I would also listen to heck out
of a defunct candy nostalgia podcast. Another candy bar I
(38:50):
miss is the American mars bar. I have tried the
European one and it is not the same. I worked
her a company that did say els and marketing for
eminem slash Mars for a while. While I was there,
I grilled our rep from that company about that, and
they said that they had replaced it with the highly inferior,
in my honest opinion, snicker almond bar, and there were
(39:12):
no plans to ever bring it back. Sadly, I went
back to my server room and wept bitterly from my
beloved mars bar. I still keep hoping that they will
bring it back when they realized the error of their
ways one day, one glorious day. I love this. I
(39:34):
tell you, everyone has this thing. Yeah, um, and I
totally get like the difference when people will be like, no,
it's the same thing, and You're like, it's I know,
But also they do. I mean, I could definitely do
more research on this, but I've read stories, but they
certainly change formulas based on the country and taste of
(39:55):
what region of items with the same lay bowl. Um.
So I hear you. This is a tragedy and it
should not be stood for. Should not be stood for.
I'm telling you, maybe one day we'll do a whole
items you can't get anymore podcast. Look, Lauren and Anny
(40:19):
make you sad in a nostalgic way, yes, and also
filled with righteous anger. Yeah yeah, right, all right, the
Righteous Anger Saver mini series. I like this. Oh yeah.
Vivian wrote about the Alice in Wonderland episode. I loved
(40:41):
the voice acting and sound editing you and your team
did for this episode. I never managed to get through
the book when I tried to read it many years ago,
finding it rather inane, But now I might give it
another shot. If you guys ever make a full audio drama,
I would listen in an instant. Perhaps you ran out
of time this episode, but I was surprised to think
you didn't touch more on Dodgson's math mat iCal aptitude.
(41:01):
He did some core academic work with mathematical logic many
years ago. I took a summer class in logic and reasoning,
and his syllogisms featured quite heavily. His mathematical publications are
just as whimsical and brain contorting as Alice in Wonderland.
I loved that good recommendation. Yeah, yeah, you know, like
(41:22):
there was a certain amount of just like I wasn't
sure where to UM kind of like cut off the
that branch of research because UM or a reading rather
because because there's so much out there about it and
UM and we are a food show reportedly report. But yeah,
that is fascinating. UM. I think I knew of this,
(41:44):
but I'm glad. I'm glad you brought it to our
attention because I actually really love math and logic puzzles,
so I want to look into this. UM. Also, I
responded to Vivian Um, first of all, it was so
fun to do. Everyone was so fantastic in it. Yeah,
(42:05):
so Lauren, you were reading like this chapter UM at
the shadow of these books during the Yeah, when kind
of like like first thing during shut down in what
was it like like April or maybe May of UM,
I missed performing so much UM that I I started
(42:31):
and kind of inspired by a few other performers that
I saw doing stuff around the internet. UM, I started
reading Alice in Wonderland on what's it called Facebook Facebook Live? Yeah,
that's that thing where you're on Facebook, but it's a
video and it's happening live that one. Um uh yeah,
and uh yeah and went through both books. Um. The
(42:52):
videos are still up on my Facebook page. If you
can spell vogel dolm, you can find it. Um. Um.
But but goodness, yeah, I would I would love to.
I mean I think that I think that if we
could just do like full audio dramas all the time,
(43:17):
that's what we would be doing instead of I mean,
we have a really good time on this show. But
like man, full cast audio production is kind of a fiction.
Production is sort of where it's out it's very very fun. Um.
And it's so it's so fun too, like when you're
in in it, in the process, in the process, but
then like when you get to hear it after you
(43:38):
know Andrew has done he put all of his touches right,
so cool, Like we have just as much fun as
hopefully most of you do listening to it, because like
that just sounds so great. Um yeah, who knows, Maybe
we'll revisit Uh yeah, no, I mean and like like
(44:00):
we said, like like it was difficult, um really narrowing down,
Um what what what bit to read from it? Yeah,
hopefully we'll get to do lots more of those. Um.
Also uh so most of the uh full cast audio
stuff that we've done here at work has been within
the horror genre, UM, which I think just speaks to
us all being creepy bastards. But uh, but so if
(44:24):
y'all are looking for stuff that that we have worked on,
um uh there are goodness, there's a few things that
have aired in UM stuff they don't want you to
knowse feed Um if you if you search for their
fiction pieces, that will probably pop up. Um Uh. Annie
was also one of our one of our character actors
(44:49):
on a show called The Second oil Age UM, which
I got to do do a producer kind of role for.
And also I guess I'm in there to um, as
is everybody um uh. And then right, we've mentioned before
in Thirteen Days of Halloween, UM, both of us have
(45:11):
had some some some some writing in there. I got
to perform mine last year. It's real gross and this
this this year's season is really really good. Um. But goodness, Yeah, no,
I just want to do that stuff all the time. Yeah. Yeah,
me too. Um and uh over on stuff I've never
(45:34):
told you the other podcast I do. We have started
doing fiction, and actually it was because thirteen Days of Halloween.
Because I wrote like thirteen things, I'm like, well, I
know what we'll do. Um Oh, I didn't know that.
That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, you should have and do
some voice work for it. Yeah, but the first one
we did was for Halloween Twisted, which was my conspiracy
(45:57):
theory about why twistlers got rid of twists and filth,
which is my candy oh man. All right, well so yeah, yeah,
lots of lots of avenues. If you all haven't heard
(46:17):
any of those, please please go check them out. Our
our coworkers and friends do such great work and it's
so fun to do. Yeah, but yeah, definitely go check
that out. Thanks so much to these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, we would
love to hear from you. You can email us at
(46:39):
hello at favorite pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio four more podcasts
from my Heart Radio. You can visit the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producer or Is, Dylan Fagan,
(47:00):
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
H
Hello, and welcome to favorite production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelvom, and today we have
an episode for you about scalops. Yes, and we're all
very excited about this. Oh my goodness, we are. Um.
I they're one of my favorite foods. Oh me too.
I love scalots. I love like a just saute a
little butter, little lemon, maybe some parsley. Yeah, it's simple,
(00:32):
just a just a quick sear, like right, just a
tiny bit of salt and that's all you're really They're
so good and they are one of the things you
were talking about poutine on a menu, um, being one
of the things that like you just stop and like
that is as far as you get. That is how
I feel about scalops, Like like I will read the
rest of the menu out of like respect for the kitchen,
(00:56):
but like I'm going to order the scallops. It's pretty
much for conclusion. Yeah. Yeah, It's It's funny you say that,
because when you become like pretty good friends with someone,
I would say, we're very good friends, Lauren, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and we certainly have been to any number of restaurants together. Yes,
and I can be like probably dealing superproducer, Dalon and
(01:18):
Lauren are going to get these scalops and maybe I
can get a bite. But it's like one of those
things I'm like pretty sure that's what they're gonna get. Yeah, Yeah.
I always appreciate that, like like walking into a place
with a yeah, with someone that you know that well
and being like, Okay, all right, I don't have to
order that because I know they're gonna right exactly. The
(01:42):
thing is, those scalops are one of those I mean,
you're always very kind and share, but it is one
of those foods when you get your like get your
own scallops friends, because you don't normally get too many. Sure,
sure and in order. My little brother was like that
as well before he became vegetarians. Always scallops or the
thing he was going to get, like no matter what.
(02:05):
Um And they definitely they when I see them on
a menu, it's probably I'm gonna go that way. Oh
they're so good. And also, you know, listeners, we love
talking about some strange marine Oh my heck. And I
(02:27):
didn't there there there weren't enough hours in the day today.
I was really trying to fit but there's also so
many different species and they're so weird that I'm just like,
there wasn't I couldn't. I'm sorry. Um oh, no need
to apologize. It's a lot, but definitely listeners. If you
(02:48):
have not looked up a picture of a scallop of
like a live, scalive scalop in the wild, look it up,
look it up. Yep, yep, we're so uh, I mean
we're going to get into that. Yes, I'll save it,
so excited I'll save it for then, I'll save it
(03:09):
for them. Um, we've we we have done. Yes, we
have done other uh see creatures before the the oyster
fairly related, also a bibalve yes. Um. Also we've done
the lobster, crawfish, crayfish crawl daddy crabs kind of related.
(03:30):
Snails snails kind of related, although we usually eat land
snails not sea snails. But sure, yeah yeah, and then
we've done a bunch of fish. But I would say
these are definitely the ones that are closest in terms
of yeah shellfish related, sure, sure, yeah, yeah yeah, But okay,
let us get to our question. Let us scallops. What
(03:58):
are they? Oh my heck? Uh Well Scallops are yes,
a type of seafood, a shellfish indeed um and the
part most often eaten here in the United States anyway,
is um a white to pinkish white disc of muscle
that when it's raw, is very tender and a little
bit translucent um, almost almost like a jelly, And that
(04:21):
when you cook it, um, it'll firm up to being
kind of opaque and chewy the longer that you let
it go. The flavor is on the delicate side. Um,
sweet and briny and rich. Mm hmm so good. Yeah,
delicate is a good word for It's like, oh yeah, yeah, no, no,
(04:43):
this was a very serious craving episode. I like, I
started thinking, Oh, I just started thinking about them. I
started thinking about having them in um in sushi, and
right just like that nice seer we were talking. Okay, anyway,
um u uh. Scalops the animal are a bi valve,
(05:04):
meaning they've got a shell composed of two halves that
are hinged at one end. And there are a whole
bunch of different genuses and species um within the family
pectmier Um that are all referred to with scalops, and
they all have slightly different biologies and lifespans and life patterns.
(05:25):
Some of them are hermaphroditic and some uh, some are not.
There's a whole bunch of different things going on with scalops.
There's a whole bunch of different things going on with scallops, y'all.
Now that is a shirt or fellow I've heard one
so true, though, Yes, a whole bunch is going on.
(05:45):
Oh heck. Um. They are really interesting, like they are.
They are a lot more complex than, for example, an oyster. Um, right,
and so much so that I didn't really get to
delve as far into it as I wanted to today. Um.
But but basically what you're looking at, um is within
these these two halves of a hinged shell. Um, you've
(06:09):
got this this large muscle um. Then surrounded by a
kind of meaty mantle and some guts and some gills
and some gonads um, and then uh, you know, some
nervous system kind of stuff, and then um peeking out
at the outer edge of the shell, Um, you've got
these tentacles, these small tentacles um that they used to
(06:32):
you know, sense what's going on around them. Um. And
a large number of eyes um, like as many as
two hundred eyes situated around the edge of their shell
and um. In some species they are colored bright blue,
like bright bright bright blue, which is very striking in photographs.
(06:53):
Also very striking in photographs is the fact that, um,
that they're mirrored. Um they've got these little mirror uh,
a little bit inside of their eyes that help the
eyes work, um, And so they're quite reflective, yeah, in photographs.
So when a scalop is looking at you in a picture,
that's that's had a flash. It's just it's very It's
(07:14):
a lot it is, and look it up. I'm telling you,
you've got to see it. I don't think I knew.
I don't think I was aware neither. It was news
to me. But I'm glad that I know now. Yeah.
Um so gosh, I yeah, I really Okay, Okay, it's
(07:35):
a different show. It's a different day anyway. The shells,
the shells um. They're typically roughly circular in shape, with
a with a flat end where right the hinge attaches
the two halves. Each half is a shaped like a
like a shallow dish. Sometimes one will be deeper than
the other so that the creature can like sit in
sand and present like a relatively unobtrusive, flat profile up
(07:56):
to the world. But anyway, UM. In some types the
shells are smooth, and in others they have these deep
ridges or ribs radiating outward UM, with the hinge being
the focal point UM, sort of like a hand fan,
you know. And UM. The word escaloped meaning ridged in
(08:17):
like slopy little dips um comes from the shape of
these shells. UM. The shells can come in a wide
range of colors, from white to oranges to Purple's really pretty,
really um, and their shells are continually growing. You can
count the rings radiating outward from the shells hinge to
estimate how many years old escalop is like a tree.
(08:40):
Oh yeah, it'll take a few years for scallops to
reach what's considered full size for harvesting. How long that
will be will depend on the type of scaloping question. UM.
For just for example, for Atlantic sea scalops, it's like
three to four years, but you can let them go
a lot longer, like they can live up to about
any years or more UM and get kind of large.
(09:03):
Scalops can produce millions or hundreds of millions of eggs
every year. UM. And we'll breed by releasing them out
into the water column and um and and similarly, males
or um things that are creating sperm at that moment
will release their sperm, and then it's just sort of
like well, hopefully the sperm and the eggs find each
(09:25):
other and result in fertilized eggs that hatch as larva,
though apparently one in a million or fewer of those
uh eggs will get fertilized and go on to reach adulthood.
Wow yeah, yeah, shotgun style, you know. Go. Those larva, though,
(09:46):
will float around for a month or two before starting
to grow their shell and then uh falling and settling
on the seafloor, though they don't really settle in um
generally like a like say oysters do, which if you're
if you're going out and getting like a wild oyster,
you gotta hammer it off of the rock um that
(10:06):
that the shells have attached themselves to. Uh. Scallops are
a lot more mobile than that. Um. They can earn,
most of them are. Most of them can swim and
swim pretty fast and thus avoid predators like starfish, which
will use their weird limbs to pry a shell apart
and then disgorge their stomach into the shell and then
(10:29):
liquefy the bi valve and then suck their stomach back in.
It's terrifying. Starfish aside, couldn't help myself. I'm sorry and
or welcome. Thank you, thank you putting that in there. Um,
I feel like you've got some very specific experience slash
(10:52):
memories of this. I it's just one of the things
that I'm like, well, that's really borked nature. Thank you.
Oh yeah. Also again highly recommend looking up footage of
scallops smoothing. Pretty cool. Yeah, it's super cool alright. Anyway, Um,
(11:15):
we're a food show again allegedly so yeah, certainly here
in the States. Um, the part that you probably think
of when you think of scallops is food. Um. That
that thick, meaty white disk is the scalops um adductor
muscle um, which it uses to open and shut its
(11:38):
shell um, though it never completely closes, unlike say clams
or muscles or oysters. And if you think about the
similar muscle in any of those bi valves, UM, you'll
get an idea of how the two animals are. Two
types of animals use them differently because in those other bivalves. Um.
That muscle is used to hold the shell shut tight
(11:59):
most are all of the time. Um, it's a stiff,
fibrous a little bit that we pretty much just cut
through in order to open the shell and eat the
meaty bit the mantle. Um. But scalops right don't sit
in one place once they mature. Usually they swim by
fluting water through their shell, which they do by flexing
(12:22):
that muscle. And so that's why it grows so large. Um.
But but the whole scalop is edible. If you get
them a hole or or live um. They might have
a purse of a bright orange row in the shell
that can also be eaten raw or cooked. Um. It'll
still have that mantle attached, Smaller and tougher than in
some of those other bivalves, but still tasty. You can
(12:45):
you can tenderize it and serve it raw as like
a like a sashimi, or you can dry it out
for for use um in in snacks or or powders um.
Or you can cook it into soups or stews. So tasty.
One of my favorite, one of my favorite Isakaiah's um
in Atlanta. Show you has a dish of like when
(13:05):
they get live scallops in where they'll they'll they'll you know,
take the good scalop bit and serve it as sashimi,
but then also serve you the rest of the scalop
like cooked up with like like like into kind of
like a like a broth that you just kind of
like slurp out of the shell. Oh my goodness, it
does sound good. Yeah. Um. Whoa, what about the nutrition
(13:34):
by themselves? Scallops are pretty good for you. High in protein,
a little bit of fat, good smattering of vitamins and minerals.
They will help keep you going, I would say, to
fill you up. Um, you know, probably pair with a vegetable.
Always eat a vegetable. Um. Some recipes for scalops can
involve a lot of butter or cream, so like watch
your serving sizes there. But you're okay, You're okay, yeah,
(13:59):
yeah uh um. And we do have some numbers for you. Um.
A lot of these are pretty US specific, but um.
The scalping industry is hugely important to the U. S.
East Coast. In the value of the commercial scalp industry
in and around Maine was fivety two point nine million
dollars UM. And this was a huge increase, up one
(14:22):
hundred million dollars from alone. Yeah, and it went even
higher in twenty nineteen, up to UM five and fifty
nine million UM, which placed it second only to lobsters
in term of catch value in the region. UM. They
are what some fisher people, fisher folk, um, aquaculture humans
(14:44):
um referred to as a high ticket item. UM. A
single scalop can sell wholesale for around three bucks. Wow. Yeah, okay, UM.
I so when we were doing this episode, I was
looking for scalops, you know, perhaps obviously, and I couldn't
find any. And I found some, I did not buy them,
(15:04):
but I found something that were frozen, that were bacon
wrapped scallops. And I was like, frozen and already wrapped
in bacon. Yes, you know maybe if I I'm not
opposed to it. I was just a little reflexed. I mean,
have you had a bacon wrap scalop? I have not.
(15:25):
Oh all classic pairing, very very like like late eighties,
early nineties, like the surf and turf. Yeah, totally totally.
It's it's it's super good. UM. I highly recommend it,
but um, it can be it can be a lot
be like, you really have to get the texture of
(15:46):
both right, otherwise it's kind of like soggy and chewy,
which is not what I want from that experience either. Wow,
any gate, UM, But the price was very high, as
was the point I was securitously trying to get to sure. Yes. Yes,
(16:10):
the value of mains scalp fishery was estimated to be
just under two million dollars in two thousand and two,
and that was a drop from when it was valued
around ten million dollars, which that drop sparked a push
for some protections and changes around scalping in the region.
And we're going to get into that in the history section. Yeah. Yeah,
it's it's been called like a like a true success
(16:32):
story UM in the in the fishing industry, and it's
been so important to that region that UM that that
a lot of research is still being done UM and
and with special programs in place to help it along.
For example, of the allowed wild sea scalop harvest in
the Atlantic, one point to five million pounds are sold
(16:53):
specifically to fund that research UM through this initiative called
the Scalop Research Set Aside Program UM. And I'll say
that that is a really tiny amount, like a few
hundred million pounds are caught every year, So it's but
it's nice. It's just a nice you know, fishers, fishers helping,
helping the industry out. Yeah, m hm. And scalping is
(17:14):
not just important to the East coast. Here in Alaska,
the long term average harvest of weather vein scalops from
about fourteen was around six hundred thousand pounds are about
two hundred and seventy three thousand keylows and uh, and
we import a lot to um, some three hundred million
dollars worth every year because yeah, different species grow in um,
(17:38):
different kind of cool ocean regions around the world. Mm hmm.
Research conducted from eighteen estimated that the C. Scalop population
was around thirty four million thirty four million individual sea
scalops um. Because of the way scalps work, the population
of them, and the reasons behind any decreases sort of
(18:00):
the sea equivalent of the canary in a coal mine, Like,
they can service early indicators of a problem in the environment.
I think we talked about that with oysters as well.
Just because of how they function, they can be a
really good indicator of any kind of issue. Um, but
as we've been talking about, we did see a pretty
(18:22):
massive decrease of scallops here, but also some successful policies
put into place that really turned that around. Yeah, and
we are going to get into all of that history
and more, but first we're going to pause for a
quick break for a word from our sponsor. We're back,
(18:50):
Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So scallops are believed
to have evolved over two hundred and forty five million years.
Uh huh yeah, yeah, uh, so we're not going to
go into all that. Um, this is going to be
the longest episode strapping We've got a lot to say
(19:14):
about the oops. Um. Researchers have found scalop fossils dating
back to the early Cretaceous period about one tred million
years ago. But yeah, they've survived quite a lot hum hum.
As we've discussed in previous episodes, when it comes to food,
researchers believe that humans who have had access to mollusks
(19:37):
like scalops have been eating them since forever. Yeah yeah um.
And also, just like we've discussed before, the history of
this one is really tricky to trace because a lot
of different names were used for scalops throughout the written record,
and the name scalop was also used to refer to
(19:58):
multiple mollusks that we're not scalps, Nope, nope, So that's fine, yep, yep,
And then just think about scaloped dishes that were right, Yes,
scalops can be scalloped. Um. Some stories believe that the
(20:18):
term scaloped originated it was to describe foods that involved cream,
butter and bread crumbs baked and served in scaloped shells.
But there's perhaps a surprising amount of discourse on this. Yeah,
like future episode perhaps, but people have a lot of
(20:39):
thoughts about what this means from into that. Yeah, all right.
In the Three Specie Greek philosophers Xenocrates wrote about scallops, quote,
grilled and served with vinegar and silphium. They tend to
loosen the bowels owing to their excessive sweetness. They are
(21:00):
you see here, and easier to digest if they are baked. Okay,
all right, all right, Yeah. Aristotle wrote about scalops, describing
how he believed they were better when caught in the spring,
which is when they spawn. I believe are at that
time what scalps. He was writing about when they spawn.
(21:20):
Um records indicate that scalops were enjoyed by the ancient
Romans and they were sometimes used in souflay like recipes
at the time. All right, I'm into that me too.
Some sources suggest that folks in Florida were harvesting base
scallops all the way back to the ninth century CEO
(21:42):
UM And and now a note on scallop shells and art,
because okay, scalop shell motifs in European architecture and art
and objects date back to ancient Greece and Rome um
and during medieval times they really boomed in popularity, it
(22:03):
seems as a symbol um starting around the twelve hundreds
and then kind of really ramping up in like the
fourteen hundreds. Yeah, scalop shells just started appearing everywhere in
art and architecture as symbols of strength or protection, of
birth or rebirth of femininity and um Christian pilgrimage, in
(22:23):
which case they're especially associated with the Way of Saint James,
which is this pilgrimage mirroring the journey of one of
Jesus disciples. Like the Mediterranean scalops, a specific type of scalp.
It's taxonomical name is a reference to this. Um it's
pectin jacobious, which it's not James the Sis or something
because of some interesting things related to Germanic terms for anyway.
(22:47):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, just scalops everywhere everywhere. Um, Like
that shell that Botachelli's venus is rising up from is
a scalop shell. Uh if once you start looking for it,
you will see it everywhere. Yes, And once you brought
this up, where did my mind go? Immediately SpongeBob SquarePants
(23:12):
and I think I think there are some well I
have no idea what you're talking about, but that's delightful.
We still, I guess, I guess I still need to
watch that show, and we still need to do an
episode about it. So I am excited for that, forthcoming, forthcoming, forthcoming. Indeed,
(23:33):
um well, scalop art aside, Yes, a popular way to
eat scalops in the seventeenth century was to chop the
meat up, combine it with bread crumbson sauce, put it
back in the shell, and back it up, which sounds
kind of like that scaloped term h or kind of
the agreed upon definition that I very superficial. I won't
(23:54):
say I went too deep into this, but I kind
of the agreed upon definition of what that means. UM
also sounds still just to me. Between the sixteen hundreds
to eighteen hundreds, several recipes for stewed scalops started showing
up in English cookbooks and a few in neighboring areas
as well. The English work Castle's Dictionary of Cookery, with
(24:16):
numerous illustrations, had this entry on scalops. The scalp is
a shellfish somewhat larger than an oyster and somewhat resembling
it in shape. It is something like a crab and taste.
It may be served in two or three ways, and
is generally highly esteemed. Where it is known, the scalop
may enter appropriately into any fish pie, though it should
(24:37):
be boiled previously. It is best when scalped. The deep
shells of the scalop carefully preserved after they are used,
and will be used when it is wished to scalop
the remains of dressed fish of any kind. Well, I
feel like this is like that buffalo sentence, like yes, yes,
(25:04):
I was reading this, like what wish to scalop? I
love it? Um, and then Castle's New Universal Cookery Book
out of updated it with this note. We should add
that scalops, when not in good condition, are most objectionable
and flavor and also very unwholesome. Cost about a penny each.
(25:32):
No good note, good note. Fresh fresh seafood is best. Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know that I've ever had a bad scalop,
but I absolutely believe that they are bad. Yes. In
nineteenth century North America, scalops ranked below oysters, lobsters, and
clams in terms of desirable New England shellfish, so people
(25:53):
really didn't prefer them if given a choice. Though there
were some earlier mentions of scalops, they really didn't start
growing up in New England cookbooks on a regular basis
until the eighteen seventies. Oyster men out of Connecticut are
thought to be some of the first attap the commercial
market for scalops in this country, helping to foster taste
for them in nearby New York. Scalping was officially recognized
(26:16):
in the US in the eighteen eighties. Rhode Island was
the top producer at this time. Um and commercial scalopers
often implied women to open the shell and remove the
and remove im pack the meat for sale. Um. And
before diesel engines came onto the scene. Uh, usually people
use drags on sailboats to get the scallops. Mains commercial
(26:40):
industry coalest in nineteen hundred when the gasoline engine became
available and I guess speaking of gasoline um. And also
one more art note, um, what would become the Shell
Oil Company was named for the seashells among other goods
that the company are which only was importing from Asia,
(27:03):
also including petroleum products and shells. Scalop logo, that is,
a scalop shell on its logo, was first debuted in
nineteen o four. I did not know that. Ye did
not know that? Huh. Well, it took several decades for
the scalping industry to really take off in the US.
It wasn't until the nineteen twenties and thirties some improvements
(27:24):
in transportation and the discovery of sea scalops at George's
Bank that allowed for the transport of both bay and
sea scalops across the country. That scalops. All this substantial
growth in popularity here still um, they had a bit
of an awareness reputation problem. Perhaps Take this quote from
(27:46):
George Frederick's Seven Long Island Seafood Cookbook. The seas are
full of both fearful and beautiful things, but none lovelier
than the fluted shellfish, the scalop. The scalp is also
I believe i'll misrepresent did fish. Oh and I and
I and I didn't mention this the top. But um,
(28:06):
but if you're unaware of the kind of essential difference
between base scallops and sea scalops, yes, location is one
of them. But but base scalops tend to be the
small ones that you find maybe, um, maybe the size
of a of a small coin. Um, and uh, the
sea scalops are usually much larger. So yeah, there you go. Um. Meanwhile,
(28:27):
Japan started up its scalop aquaculture programs in the nineteen
fifties and um and a lot of the technologies being
used to this day um all around the world are
from those programs. In Theodora fitz gibbons nineteen seventy six
book The Food of the Western World, fits Gibbon claimed
the most familiar species in British waters of scalop was
(28:48):
the great scalop, and that it was superior in taste
to the American variety of scalops, which I was kind well,
I see people like throughout history, people would write in
and they would really weigh in on this um, which
did make me laugh. Also, Um, I'd forgotten about you know,
base gallops, that they're nice fried like a like gentle fried.
(29:12):
Oh yeah, yes, yes. In the nineteen seventies and eighties,
some folks started using scooba gear for a scallop collection.
Women were key and gathering base gallops during summer seasons
in Florida in the nineteen seventies to um. So they
would wade into the water with these wooden boxes that
(29:35):
had clear glass bottoms called scalop boxes, and they would
spend hours collecting these scalts before returning home to shuck
and clean them. Um. And it was really interesting because
allot of this information I got through various maritime museums
in Florida. Yeah, yeah, which I just was like, Oh,
(29:55):
I love that this is like a museum exhibit I
could go and learn. Yeah. Now I feel especially yeah,
like I don't think I've ever been to a museum
in Florida that specifically talked about the history of scaloping. Well,
we've got to fix that. Yeah, yeah, I guess to
be fair, I was mostly on the East coast. But anyway, Yeah,
(30:19):
this brings us to modern times and sort of the
decline and then subsequent increase of scalut population. We were
talking about UM because scalut populations did experience a pretty
significant decline due to coastal development, over fishing, declines in
sea grass, and climate change around Landings for scalops began
(30:42):
steadily dropping, though they have been on the decline since
the nineteen seventies about UM, and there have been a
lot of efforts to combat this. Some of the first
over fishing regulations around scalps in the US went into effect,
including the implementation of a scalping season and limits on
the amount of scalops that could be fished. Commercial harvest
(31:04):
and sale. Base galops in Florida were banned completely in
The Sustainable Fisheries Act was enacted in nine and the
Magnusen Steven's Fishery Conservation and Management re Authorization Act was
enacted in two thousand and six. The federal government introduced
an overfishing level of one point to nine million pounds
(31:25):
of shucked scalp meat an annual catch limit of one
point one six one million pounds, and there have been
multiple studies about the longevity of scalops and ways to
improve their numbers. The Maria Mitchell Association the m m A,
and Nantucket Shellfish Association or the n s A launched
a long term study of base gallops in the area.
(31:47):
In two thousand three, in the Fish and Wildlife Research
Institute launched a ten year project to boost the population
of base gallops along the Florida Coast to a self
sustaining level. And these are just a few examples. There
are plenty more, yeah, and some of these initiatives have
produced promising results. From two thousand eleven, the American scalping
(32:12):
industry saw a massive comeback UM twelve to fifty eight
million pounds harvested during that time, the industry value going
from seventy six million dollars to five and seventy nine
million dollars over that time. In twenty nineteen, America had
their largest harvest of scalps since eighteen with fifty eight
point to million pounds, the fifth highest harvest in history.
(32:35):
UM that was at the time. I'm not sure if
something has surpassed it since then. But big increase. Yeah yeah, yeah, um,
and that I believe is talking about sea scalops right, Um.
Kind of going back and forth with some of these things. Um,
but but yeah, just overall, Um, there's still, as we said,
a lot of research going into it. And yeah it's
pretty promising. Um. You know, uh, farming a phil there,
(33:00):
feeding water column breeding animal like a scalop is is
a pretty great thing to do for a few reasons,
um one, or like better than some other aquaculture for
a few reasons. UM One, they eat phytoplankton, which is
a microorganism that's pretty good at sustaining its own populations
(33:21):
um out in the sea or ocean or bay or etcetera. Um. Also,
they helped literally filter the water, improving the quality of
their environment wherever they live. Um. Also, some research suggests
that the presence of scalop farms might help bolster wild
scalop populations because of the way that they that they
(33:41):
spawn freely out in the water. Um you know, maybe
mixing with wild scalop spawn, maybe increasing fertilization of both populations.
Good stuff, good stuff. And speaking of there is still
research being done into scalops eyes. Okay, talking about it.
(34:04):
We did. It's so cool, okay. So, um, their their eyes. Um,
they're up to two eyes. Um. Every every eye that
a scalop has um each will will use a congcave
mirror made up of a mosaic of tiny square crystals
in order to focus incoming light onto the eyes retina.
(34:28):
Our eyes have a have have squishy lenses that that
do that light focusing thing. Right. Yeah, but okay, in scalops,
the retina of each eye is double layered, so that
depending on where the light is coming from into the eye, um,
whether it's right in front of the scalop or towards
the periphery, UM, the mirror can help focus the light
(34:52):
onto one or the other of the retina's two layers,
and thus the scalop can still get a good look
at what's going on around it either way. Um. We
do this by you know, like looking around. But um,
but but scallops you know don't have like eye sockets.
They can't like like turn like we can necessarily. So yeah,
And furthermore, that mosaic structure of those little light focusing
(35:21):
um crystals that form up into that concave mirror, that
mosaic structure is pretty much exactly what we use in
reflecting telescopes in order to focus light. So it's so interesting. Yeah,
(35:41):
and like there's right, Yeah, there really is still a
whole bunch of research being done into it, and I
am delighted by every single bit of it that I've read. Um, yes,
I mean just imagine having I see I feel I
feel like parsing information from my two eyes is often difficult.
(36:04):
I'm going like, oh gosh, like like there must be
some really interesting, uh like data sifting going on in there,
like surprisingly complex for such a relatively simple animal. Yeah,
I wonder you know. There's a type of zombie in
the Last of Us two Yeah, called the shambler and
(36:30):
is mostly eyes. And I'm always like, what happened here
and didn't run away quickly because they're not to be
trackled with. Yeah yeah, anything with that many eyes, I'm like, mmmmmmmm,
(36:51):
I can't escape cherubim. Well, biblical angels have lots of
eyes as well. Anyway, Yes, anyway, look it up. You
haven't if we haven't convinced you, go look up their eyes.
It's cool, mostly scallops. Yeah, I mean you can look
up with the other stuff too, if you want a nightmare.
(37:13):
Look up the Chambler. Also, they're at King from Last
of Us two. Um. But anyway, I think that's what
we have to say about scallops. That is that is um.
We do. We do have some listener mail for you,
we do, but first we have one more quick break
for word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(37:39):
thank you. We're back with snow. That's about how they move. Yeah,
I think we're perfectly captured it through the miracles of
sound production. Yes, um and pure pure raw chalnge. We
(38:05):
definitely painted a picture. Definitely. Yes. David wrote jes listen
to your White Chocolate episode and I could so relate
with Lauren about the Alpine White candy bar from Nestley.
I loved that candy bar as a kid, and it
just makes me so sad that it does not exist anymore.
I would, as a little kid, break off the pieces
(38:27):
and just let it melt in my mouth so yummy.
I try to eat things like the Hershey's gold bars
from a few years back, or the Cookies and Cream bar,
but they just don't cut it, don't you Nessley, do
you do? Heck? I would also listen to heck out
of a defunct candy nostalgia podcast. Another candy bar I
(38:50):
miss is the American mars bar. I have tried the
European one and it is not the same. I worked
her a company that did say els and marketing for
eminem slash Mars for a while. While I was there,
I grilled our rep from that company about that, and
they said that they had replaced it with the highly inferior,
in my honest opinion, snicker almond bar, and there were
(39:12):
no plans to ever bring it back. Sadly, I went
back to my server room and wept bitterly from my
beloved mars bar. I still keep hoping that they will
bring it back when they realized the error of their
ways one day, one glorious day. I love this. I
(39:34):
tell you, everyone has this thing. Yeah, um, and I
totally get like the difference when people will be like, no,
it's the same thing, and You're like, it's I know,
But also they do. I mean, I could definitely do
more research on this, but I've read stories, but they
certainly change formulas based on the country and taste of
(39:55):
what region of items with the same lay bowl. Um.
So I hear you. This is a tragedy and it
should not be stood for. Should not be stood for.
I'm telling you, maybe one day we'll do a whole
items you can't get anymore podcast. Look, Lauren and Anny
(40:19):
make you sad in a nostalgic way, yes, and also
filled with righteous anger. Yeah yeah, right, all right, the
Righteous Anger Saver mini series. I like this. Oh yeah.
Vivian wrote about the Alice in Wonderland episode. I loved
(40:41):
the voice acting and sound editing you and your team
did for this episode. I never managed to get through
the book when I tried to read it many years ago,
finding it rather inane, But now I might give it
another shot. If you guys ever make a full audio drama,
I would listen in an instant. Perhaps you ran out
of time this episode, but I was surprised to think
you didn't touch more on Dodgson's math mat iCal aptitude.
(41:01):
He did some core academic work with mathematical logic many
years ago. I took a summer class in logic and reasoning,
and his syllogisms featured quite heavily. His mathematical publications are
just as whimsical and brain contorting as Alice in Wonderland.
I loved that good recommendation. Yeah, yeah, you know, like
(41:22):
there was a certain amount of just like I wasn't
sure where to UM kind of like cut off the
that branch of research because UM or a reading rather
because because there's so much out there about it and
UM and we are a food show reportedly report. But yeah,
that is fascinating. UM. I think I knew of this,
(41:44):
but I'm glad. I'm glad you brought it to our
attention because I actually really love math and logic puzzles,
so I want to look into this. UM. Also, I
responded to Vivian Um, first of all, it was so
fun to do. Everyone was so fantastic in it. Yeah,
(42:05):
so Lauren, you were reading like this chapter UM at
the shadow of these books during the Yeah, when kind
of like like first thing during shut down in what
was it like like April or maybe May of UM,
I missed performing so much UM that I I started
(42:31):
and kind of inspired by a few other performers that
I saw doing stuff around the internet. UM, I started
reading Alice in Wonderland on what's it called Facebook Facebook Live? Yeah,
that's that thing where you're on Facebook, but it's a
video and it's happening live that one. Um uh yeah,
and uh yeah and went through both books. Um. The
(42:52):
videos are still up on my Facebook page. If you
can spell vogel dolm, you can find it. Um. Um.
But but goodness, yeah, I would I would love to.
I mean I think that I think that if we
could just do like full audio dramas all the time,
(43:17):
that's what we would be doing instead of I mean,
we have a really good time on this show. But
like man, full cast audio production is kind of a fiction.
Production is sort of where it's out it's very very fun. Um.
And it's so it's so fun too, like when you're
in in it, in the process, in the process, but
then like when you get to hear it after you
(43:38):
know Andrew has done he put all of his touches right,
so cool, Like we have just as much fun as
hopefully most of you do listening to it, because like
that just sounds so great. Um yeah, who knows, Maybe
we'll revisit Uh yeah, no, I mean and like like
(44:00):
we said, like like it was difficult, um really narrowing down,
Um what what what bit to read from it? Yeah,
hopefully we'll get to do lots more of those. Um.
Also uh so most of the uh full cast audio
stuff that we've done here at work has been within
the horror genre, UM, which I think just speaks to
us all being creepy bastards. But uh, but so if
(44:24):
y'all are looking for stuff that that we have worked on,
um uh there are goodness, there's a few things that
have aired in UM stuff they don't want you to
knowse feed Um if you if you search for their
fiction pieces, that will probably pop up. Um Uh. Annie
was also one of our one of our character actors
(44:49):
on a show called The Second oil Age UM, which
I got to do do a producer kind of role for.
And also I guess I'm in there to um, as
is everybody um uh. And then right, we've mentioned before
in Thirteen Days of Halloween, UM, both of us have
(45:11):
had some some some some writing in there. I got
to perform mine last year. It's real gross and this
this this year's season is really really good. Um. But goodness, Yeah, no,
I just want to do that stuff all the time. Yeah. Yeah,
me too. Um and uh over on stuff I've never
(45:34):
told you the other podcast I do. We have started
doing fiction, and actually it was because thirteen Days of Halloween.
Because I wrote like thirteen things, I'm like, well, I
know what we'll do. Um Oh, I didn't know that.
That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, you should have and do
some voice work for it. Yeah, but the first one
we did was for Halloween Twisted, which was my conspiracy
(45:57):
theory about why twistlers got rid of twists and filth,
which is my candy oh man. All right, well so yeah, yeah,
lots of lots of avenues. If you all haven't heard
(46:17):
any of those, please please go check them out. Our
our coworkers and friends do such great work and it's
so fun to do. Yeah, but yeah, definitely go check
that out. Thanks so much to these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, we would
love to hear from you. You can email us at
(46:39):
hello at favorite pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio four more podcasts
from my Heart Radio. You can visit the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producer or Is, Dylan Fagan,
(47:00):
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
H
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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