FAQ North Atlantic Scallop Meat

How and where are your scallops harvested?

Our scallops are harvested off the coast of Cape Cod & Nantucket off Intershell’s fleet of fishing vessels by using commercial dredges. Intershell’s boats go out for 24 hour fishing trips and the scallops and are brought in live within their shells. After shucking, we clean and grade the scallop meat by size.

Does Intershell shuck their own scallop meat?

We do shuck our own scallop meat!

How fresh are the scallops when they arrive to my home?

All scallops sent to our online customers are harvested anywhere from 6 - 36 hours from our boats, it all depends on what time the boat arrives. It doesn’t get much fresher than that!

What size scallop meat should I get?

The size you should get depends on how you are preparing it, there is also a price point and personal preference factor in it as well. For making pasta dishes, soups, or frying scallops, we recommend the smaller size (20/30), we also offer seafood breading for frying scallops. For pan searing scallops, we recommend either the medium or large size (10/20 or U10).

Why are the larger size scallops more expensive than the smaller size?

Larger size scallops are more expensive because it is a larger size meat, as simple as that. There is a supply and demand factor as well, of course. Larger size scallops are more expensive because there are not as many available. A true wild jumbo sized scallop it hard to find!

How do I properly pan sear a scallop?

The key is to get the pan really hot (a cask iron skillet is best to use for this) and only lightly brown the top and bottom of the scallop for a few minutes each side. Cook it to a medium-rare for the best results. Scallop meat cooks very quickly, be careful to not overcook them or else they will completely shrink up losing all of their natural moisture and become tough to chew.

Can I prepare Intershell’s scallop meat raw/crudo/ceviche?

Heads Up! This answer is going to come from a “seafood connoisseur” perspective:

For serving an entire meal raw/crudo/ceviche, we strongly recommend only using live scallops in their shell instead and retrieving the meat from them to prepare anything raw/crudo/ceviche (don’t worry, we sell scallop shucking knifes). You can absolutely taste test our scallop meat raw, but only that. Anything (fish or shellfish) that you want to serve as raw, crudo, or ceviche has to be shucked or fillet yourself starting from its whole natural form from the moment you prepare it until you serve it. You also have to factor in the time it takes for us shipping the order to you, our priority overnight shipping will take away an extra day of shelf life to the product when buying seafood pre-fillet or pre-shucked. For preparing a meal, using live scallops in their shell and shucking them yourself is the best way to serve it raw/crudo/ceviche style - that’s how the sushi chefs traditionally do it.

Do you have frozen scallop meat available?

At the moment we are only offering fresh. In the future, we may offer frozen scallop meat as an option.