Over this past weekend, I had the luxury of eating at higher end restaurants than the dining halls on campus since my family came to visit for Parents Weekend.  The second time eating at the same restaurant, I decided to divulge in the seared sea scallops.  Like expected, they were beyond delicious, and it made me realize that I do not really know anything about the organism.  So I decided to conduct some research, and share my findings here.

The first interesting fact that I found out was that the scallop isn’t a single organism.  In fact, scallops can be any one of many salt water clams that live in the family Pectinidae.  They are special in that they are free living, and they can float around wherever the current takes them.  This is different from other organisms in this family because the other organisms often secure themselves to fixtures to avoid movement.

One of the coolest aspects to scallops that I learned actually deals with predator avoidance.  In the presence of a predator, a starfish for example, the scallop will clamp its shell extremely quickly to create a type of jet propulsion to get far away from the predator as quickly as possible.  This is similar to how humans escape dangerous situations, except humans run instead of swim.

After learning a little about the biological aspects to the clam, I wanted to learn some cool new ways to cook it.  My first stop was food network.  But before I could actually look at the recipes, I kept seeing something.  Websites kept saying remove the side muscle.  This continuously perplexed me, so I decided to conduct brief research on what on earth the side muscle was.

According to The Kitchen, the side muscle is a little rectangular tag of tissue on the side of the scallop that is tougher than the rest.  This is due to the muscle fibers that run opposite to the fibers in the scallop itself.  Luckily, it is extremely easy to remove with a simply pinch of the thumb and first-finger.  Once it is dislodged, the scallops are good to go into the pan.  If, however, you miss a couple of the side-muscles, there is no problem eating them, they are just sometimes tougher to chew.

There are many ways that one can cook scallops.  You can broil them, bake them, grill them, sear them, poach them, or even chop them up to stuff a piece of fish.  They are extremely versatile, and take up almost any flavor you put into the dish with it.  My favorite dish is seared scallops with lemon and pepper.  These ingredients are simple in nature, but somehow add complex flavors to the dish.

The next time you are the fish market (or fish department of the food store), make sure you take a look at your scallop selection.  Make sure they do not smell fishy, and ensure the size is reasonable for the dish that you want.  Remember, keep it simple.  Enjoy!