# Ray Scallops



## TXmarine

I never heard this till i got stationed here in NC. i hear people talk about making scallops out of stingrays. So, would anyone know how to do this? If so, any reciepies?


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## CrawFish

I've seen people use ring cutter to cut out the wing part of a ray and fried 'em. It came out nice white flesh, look like scallops. I never ate it before, I don't think. Try that and let us know how those scallops taste


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## TXmarine

Sure thing. i caught about a 70 lber last night. maybe i will catch a smaller one tonight. but if i do i will definatley let you know.


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## JIGMAKER

I tried to cook ray. It did not come out well and it smelled the house up. I consider myself a good cook. You might want to try and bleed the ray after you catch it next time, I did not. I thought about a marinade but that did not work, barbecue was bad, lemon and pepper didn't come out well either. Let us know your results. Maybe smoking it would work.

If any one knows of a way to prepare ray I would like to know. One ray is a lot of meat and there sure are a lot of them out there.


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## WarMachine

*Soaking in Buttermilk*

I heard somwhere that if you soak certain animals in buttermilk over night it takes away the gamey or fishy taste. Dont take my word on it, you might want to loo it up before trying......Tight Lines


MC


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## TXmarine

about the buttermilk thing, you can just use regular milk. it works good to get the fish smell out. I don't know if all of you in here are hunters as well, but it works great for getting the bad smell off wild hogs and javalinas


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## Anthony

This topic usually comes up every few months so heres my take. Cow nose rays are terrible, I tried it once and it was just awful, the meat is dark red and very gamey. Skates on the other hand are very good, their meat is white but a little gamey. I heard if you let them sit in the fridge for a day or two it improves the taste. I don't think that they taste like scallops but I haven't had one in years. The only hard part is cleaning the skate wings, I usually use plyers to peel off the skin.


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## archer393

*scallops*

hate to tell yall but if youve ever eaten store scallops on the east coast it was most likely ray or shark or so im told


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## rattler

rays are beyond me...skates...if you get a big one...its wings only...i could show you but can't tell you where to cut...they clean like a catfsh...skin them...they really do have that scallop taste...just chewier...never heard of shark sold as scallop...


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## wncfishbuster

*removing the fishy tasye*

another good way to get out the fishy taste is to mix 1 quart water with 1/4 cup of flour in the blender. soak fish 2-4 hours. rinse and cook. this works really well and doesn't require milk


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## RuddeDogg

*Scallops...*

Here on the coast of Cape May it's easy to tell. Surf and bay scallops are opaque or milky white in color. They are not pink tinged and perfectly rounf if they are, it's mako or ray. I used to work in a fish market. As far as how to make them from a ray, use a small cookie cutter, I would use the butter milk, it acts as a tenderizer and adds a little sweetness to the meat. To prep or cook them the same way you would a real scallop. I may have a recipe layin around, I'll post if I find it.i


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## Ugly Hooker 26

*here*

http://www.freshfish4u.com/recipes/326.htm


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## fyremanjef

*Well*

Real sea scallops are not perfect circles. If you bite into a scallop, where ever you are, and it has nice smooth edges, then it was more than likely punched from a skate.

Maybe if everyone started targeting skates, we could start complaining about hooking up with a darn blue or rock .


Ok, just came to me, scallops from big rays or skates, or are they one in the same?!?


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## Green Cart

*No*

Read Anthony's above per cow nose ray which is not edible. Skates are different animals which are supposed to be pretty good. We catch cow nose rays all the time in in the Chesapeake Bay all the way down to Point Lookout. I never catch skates unless I fish from Kiptopeake Pier, etc. Which is why I cuss the cow nose rays all the time


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## Anthony

sand flea said:


> The surprise of the trip for me was finally trying grilled skate. It was actually very good. I've tried cownose before and it made me want to take a swig of kerosene and drop a match down my mouth, but this skate was sweet and flaky and not unlike crab. I can't believe something that ugly was that tasty.


At AI, I thought it would be a good idea to throw a skate wing on the grill. It was pretty good. Just be careful of the thorns on the wings. Still don't see how you could confuse this with scallops though.


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## rhorm

Skate wing is really good pan-seared with lemon and butter over some grits. mmmmmm  but, cownose = :--|


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## NTKG

archer393 said:


> hate to tell yall but if youve ever eaten store scallops on the east coast it was most likely ray or shark or so im told



i posted about this on the arrdeeteee board last night. this is all whack. if you go to a restaurant that serves you skate as scallops, you go to trashy restaurants. if you are a employee of a seafood shop that sells it as scallops your a trashy shop, and your customers are foolish.... must be from jersey  catchin striiiiipa's on claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaams? 

they taste nothing alike. about the same as a cobia vs tog

http://www.reddrumtackle.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=3910


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## RuddeDogg

*I guess your that good.....*

To tell the diffrence. You must be a pro....NOT!!!!
I used to work in a nation wide recognized resturant in The City of Cape May and we did it all the time. It's done more than you know.


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## NTKG

what restaurant was that? sounds like a great place to go. i hope i can pay for some scallops and get skate. your a winner ripping people off and braggin about it. like i said you must be from jersey. 

if you cant tell the difference between the two, your tastebuds are broken. how can you not differentiate between the two different textures. 

_you have never eaten Skate have you? If you have you would know that what you said is wrong, it has been wrong for at least 38 years. That's how long I have heard that B..S.. 
The next time you catch a Clearnosed Skate(the one with spines on it's back) cut the wings off. Next dip the wings in boiling water for 20 seconds, the skin should peel off with a fork. Now roll them in seasoned flour and fry them up. Does it look like Scallop? Does it taste like Scallop? Is the texture like a Scallop? I didn't think so._


_Q: Are skates really used to make "imitation" scallops?
A: The long-held myth that skate wings are often cut into pieces to be sold as scallops is one of those "believe it or not" stories that was never a common practice. The unusual bands of muscle fibers in skate wings would make it very difficult to produce a product that remotely resembles a scallop. In addition, this process would probably be so labor intensive that the resulting product could make the product cost almost as much as the real scallop that it was intended to imitate. Although the myth is untrue, it does pay homage to the sweet and appealing shellfish-like taste of skate._


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## Otter

RuddeDogg said:


> To tell the diffrence. You must be a pro....NOT!!!!


wow good burn man. Don't quit your day job.

I love the fact that a recipe thread has turned nasty.


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## RuddeDogg

*Well....*

If you read my post the operating word was USED TO. All I was saying was that the local resturants do use other than the real thing. Not all the time but sometimes they do. Obviously you must must be a world renound chef and have worked in the local resturants in the Cape May area. If so ok, if not then your have no @#$% clue what you are talking about.


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## CrawFish

*scallop vs. skate vs. ray*

Settle down!!!! Don't you guys have any things better to debate, like shockleader knots, diameter, lengths? Or fishfinder rig vs. high-low rig? Or braided vs. mono? Or Spinner vs. Baitcaster? Penn vs. Daiwa vs. Okuma vs. Shimano vs. Tica? 

I've never had ray, but skate yes, many times... nothing like scallops. 

But if'n you had scallops wrapped w/ bacon, and everyone knows pork fat rules. So most things wrapped w/ bacon are good. And You could have had skates w/ out knowing about it.


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## AL_N_VB

*I smell..........*

  a round of Iron Chef....wit tha main coarse of the elusive clear nose skate.

One hour fellas.Grill em,steak em...boil em...do what ever ya like...jus catch em all and cook em...so the skates will stay off my hook  


But fer real fellas.....shake and make friends..or there will really be an Iron Chef compitition  ...And I'm cooking when I'm drunk    :--|


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## RuddeDogg

*I'm noit trying........*

To debate anyone here at all. I know from personal experience that when scallops were short we used rays or mako in their place. It worked most of the time not all of the time. I have lived in the Cape May area for 25 yrs and have worked in various fish markets and resturants and I know this was done. Do I agree with of course not, but it is a common practice is all.


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## Otter

*Hey how would you know? Where are you from??*



Chef RuddeDogg said:


> I have lived in the Cape May area for 25 yrs and have worked in various fish markets and resturants.





Emeril RuddeDogg said:


> you must must be a world renound chef and have worked in the local resturants in the Cape May area





Wolfgang RuddeDogg said:


> I used to work in a nation wide recognized resturant in The City of Cape May





Sherlock RudeDogg said:


> Here on the coast of Cape May it's easy to tell


Oh that's right.....


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## fyremanjef

*Next time*

Next time Im a fishing in skate infested waters I may toss a skate on the grill and then toss it back into the water just to show the other skates what could happen to them if they bite down on my circles. I figure if the deterrant thing worked during the Cold War, then it may have a chance to work while fishing.

Jeff


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## Green Cart

*Confusion*

I still think that some of you are still confused about skates and rays. What Anthony and I am saying that skates may be good to eat, but cow nose rays are awful-tasting.

If there is any truth to scallops coming from skates, then the scallops do not come from cow nose rays. 

But let us forget about the scallops. If you want to grill, grill skates, not cow nose rays.  

I am limiting my discussion to Chesapeake Bay in general as there are all kinds of skates and rays all over the world. Some of them EVEN are called skate rays so I don't want to get bogged down in splitting the hair.


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## Green Cart

*CrawFish*

The reason some of us get hung up discussing the skate vs cow nose rays is that we catch an awful lots of them so it is a waste of resources if we cannot eat them.  

Unfortunately, cow nose rays are not edible which is why we cuss them, break them off, mishandle them - see MD forum for these discussions.

If we can eat cow nose rays, it will go a long way to protect the striped bass, but than again the scientists may argue that point.


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## Green Cart

Am bumping this thread to May 24, 2011


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## Freddrum

Cownose rays ARE edible. I was in one of my old accounts in hampton a couple of years ago, and they we're featuring them to coincide with a documentary this group was filming promoting farm raised rays as a food source for the future. They were either New Zealanders or Austrailian I forget which, but I tried some and it was actually pretty good. Almost steaklike in flavor but with a different texture. I guess a professional chef can make pretty much anything taste good.


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## sand flea

They're selling cownose rays in grocery stores now as "filet of Chesapeake ray." I tried them once and they were awful, but you can supposedly make them taste good if you prep them right.

Anyway, this is what a clearnose skate looks like. They're small, only live in the Atlantic (can't tolerate brackish water) and don't have a poison barb. This is what a cownose ray looks like. They're larger, have neurotoxin in a barb on the tail, and can be found from the ocean to rivers that are almost entirely fresh. For whatever reason, guys in the Chesapeake tend to call rays "skates."


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## Gnatman

I'd heard about this many years ago and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, the wings of cow nose rays are nothing more than approximately 1/8" diameter tubes of cartilidge running vertically from top to bottom. Stunk up the house to high heaven, and the cat wouldn't even eat it.

The body meat may be a different story, but the wifey forbid me to cook another piece. Fertilized the roses nicely however.


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