Farmed Sea Scallop Cookbook: Guide to Whole Sea Scallops Sustainably Harvested

No doubt as long as there have been hungry people and there have been scallops in all of the world’s oceans, people have come up with delicious ways to eat them. However, since the decline and subsequent management of our New England scallop fisheries, only the 4-inch or larger wild caught scallops have been available. An online search for scallop recipes will find a number of delicious ways to cook and eat what is often referred to as the meat—that big muscle called the adductor which holds the top and bottom shells together.

Now that sea farmers like Marsden and Bob Brewer are successfully raising sea scallops in the healthy Penobscot Bay ecosystem off the Stonington archipelago, we have a new option—whole sea scallops. This collection of recipe suggestions reflects food combinations that have been traditional around the world for many generations, but what’s YOUR style? Are you looking to get your kids to fall in love with whole scallops? Thread the scallops on skewers interwoven with bacon and grill. Scallop tacos? Sure. You really love Surf & Turf? Butter-braised little scallops are perfect companions for that grilled steak. Or give yourself the tasty comfort of an Alfredo-style pasta with whole farmed scallops.

When you cook your everyday family meals, think how you might substitute scallops for the protein. That opens up a whole new world of recipes. You will find that recipes that feel everyday to you help close any imagined gap between what is possible for chefs and for home cooks. The descriptions in this collection are not long, so you should have no trouble reading through and then assembling the ingredients before you launch into preparation. Taste, taste, and modify according to your own preferences.

Marnie Reed Crowell is a natural history writer with a masters degree in biology. She came to Maine with her ecologist husband who was doing biogeography research on the islands off Deer Isle. One of the Island’s acknowledged best cooks took Marnie under her wing and taught her authentic Island ways to deal with sea foods. When her friend Marsden one day bemoaned that folks did not really know what to do with his aquaculture sea scallops, this project was born. Marsden saw to it that Marnie was well supplied with scallops.

Being married to an ecologist meant research and trips to conferences around the world for Marnie. Over the years she gathered recipes from Canada, Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. “What country are we tonight?” her husband more than once inquired gazing at his plate of her experiment of the day.

Marnie’s books include Greener Pastures: In Praise of Traditional Country Living (Funk & Wagnalls), Great Blue: Odyssey of a Heron (Times Books), Flycasting for Everyone (Stackpole), and The Heron Witch (Green Writers Press). Her articles appear in numerous magazines such as DownEast, Redbook, Reader’s Digest, Working Waterfront, and Audubon.

Marsden Brewer has for the past two decades focused on figuring out how to make farming scallops work for Maine. He is a third-generation Maine fisherman and has been fishing all his life, whether it’s what he calls low water urchining, scalloping, or offshore ground fishing, shrimping and lobstering. Knowing Penobscot Bay so well, Marsden sees that we are entering an era where the fishermen need to adapt to turn harvesting from today’s ocean into a sustainable success story. With his son Bob he now farms sea scallops. See www.penbayfarmedscallops.com.

A former member of the Department of Marine Resources Advisory Council, Marsden served as selectman for the town of Stonington for six years and so has his wife Donna. She is currently a Stonington selectman while running Red Barn Farm, their retail shop featuring scallops, lobsters, and their farm products.