Faux seafood is the next trend

Yes. But you need to add sugar.

https://www.google.com/search?channel=tus2&client=firefox-b-1-d&q="caramelized+scallops"

My goal was to be understood. I was. Goal achieved.

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Hmm. I haven’t seen sugar added to scallops before. I still question real caramelization (https://www.google.com/search?channel=cus2&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=what+is+caramelization) fast enough to keep scallops from turning to rubber.

Here is the sort of vocabulary confusion I referred to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrWKc3bjAw - searing is NOT caramelizing.

Right down a rabbit hole. Scallops are a religious issue for my wife, so I’m not about to mess those up. Shrimp cook much the same. Bunch of research on caramelizing seafood. The credible sources all talk about ten minutes to caramelize sugar and therefore making a separate caramel that is heated on the seafood when the seafood is cooked. We’re still having burger night tonight but I’m going to make shrimp appetizer two ways: one with a pre-made caramel and one with the dusted sugar approach. We’ll see. I will report back.

Here is my experience last night. I sliced two good sized onions and put them in a slow cooker for twelve hours. Definitely caramelized but could have done with another couple of hours. Results are consistent with my previous experience stirring in a pan for an hour.

Pineapple sliced and chunked and sauteed over medium heat for about twenty minutes before I ran out of time. Warm, tasty, not caramelized.

Used shrimp as an analogue for scallops three ways: 1. caramelized sugar in a pan (10-12 minutes) and used as a dressing–with restraint–for sauteed shrimp. 2. Caramelized sugar and used as a marinade for shrimp, then sauteed. 3. Dusted shrimp with granulated sugar and sauteed. Shrimp were cooked about two minutes per side until translucent. Results: 1. brought to mind the seafood equivalent of a caramel apple. Way too sweet for my palate but some people might like it. 2. This was okay - again sweet for my taste but a more integrated taste than #1. 3. Definitely no caramelization of the sugar. Some sear on the shrimp cooked longest but no caramelization of the sugar. Scallops are more prone to being overcooked than shrimp so I just don’t see how dusting with sugar can result in caramelization without turning the protein into rubber.

I think canned tuna is one of the least desirable forms of seafood, so not the one I’d start with. I suppose they’re after the mass market - is canned tuna the hamburger of seafood?

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I don’t eat a lot of canned tuna, but I do admit that there are some worthwhile uses. I do enjoy tuna melts and the occasional tuna sandwich, as long as the mayo is kept to bare minimum. I think canned tuna as a protein on salad is fine, and I do enjoy the spicy tuna onigiri I’ve found in Japanese convenience stores. I’ve never made any of this myself, mind you. I just eat this when it’s available elsewhere, and I can’t recall the last time I bought a can of tuna.

Funny how there are so many videos and stories of cats who love canned tuna. My mom got a can from a friend once and she had no use for it and left it with me (no idea why). I thought at least I could give it to my cats for a treat. I opened the can expecting to be overtaken by the cats, and instead they just stared at me. Even when I brought the can to their faces they just sniffed and walked away with a “What do you expect me to do with that ?” look. :joy:

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It’s the sheer convenience when I want a seafood hit. If I had a dollar for every can that filled me fast…

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I love tuna melts, so I always have at least one can of tuna in the house. My cat gets the water when I drain the can, and he’s so enamored of it that he falls all over himself racing to the kitchen when he hears the can opener. I feel bad opening a can of tomatoes - he makes a big show of feeling resentful and betrayed when he finds out it’s not tuna.

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Lol, you need to get that on video. Sounds adorable. I imagine in might play out like this poor disappointed kitty.

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Aw. Laszlo is less sad and more annoyed. I always let him smell the open tomato can, to prove I’m not holding out on him. He glares at me and stalks off in a huff.

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I think that’s an overstatement. For all items that canned tuna is appropriate for you’d start with tuna steaks or fillets and shred it? Tuna salad, salade Nicoise, tuna noodle casserole, … by the time you present the product I don’t know how you’d tell the difference. Do you start with whole clams for linguine and clam sauce? Let’s not forget that fresh caught tuna comes off the boats and goes straight into canneries while the “fresh” tuna at your seafood counter or mart has been trucked major distance with varying degrees of reliable refrigeration or freezing before you get it.

Same reason we prefer frozen shrimp over “fresh” unless is fresh means we’ve caught it ourselves from a cast net, or bought it directly off the boats as they come in.

@kobuta
<<My mom got a can from a friend once and she had no use for it and left it with me (no idea why). I thought at least I could give it to my cats for a treat. I opened the can expecting to be overtaken by the cats…>>

A Siberian Husky would never respond that way.

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My mouth, my desirability rankings. I have zero desire for tuna noodle casserole or tuna salad. If I were to make salade nicoise I’d treat myself to a chunk of ahi or albacore and sear it. Canned tuna is simply not a pantry staple for me.* I prefer tuna raw or rare and when I buy canned fish it’s smoked oysters or smoked sprats, sometimes sardines.

*that said, I’ve been putting together a mini grocery store for my work neighborhood and in the interest of shelf stable proteins I did get some canned (hand-packed, dolphin-safe) albacore tuna. I was hungry enough yesterday that I ate one with a squeeze of lemon on bread and it was good, but probably the first time I’ve bought canned tuna this millennium.

Of course. You be you. For myself, I wouldn’t want to give up comfort food like tuna salad and tuna noodle casserole any more than I’d give up lasagna.

Went down a short rabbit hole looking for hand-packed tuna without luck. In that search I did find this https://www.bonappetit.com/story/best-canned-tuna and this https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/canned-tuna-guide . I don’t agree with all of either but they are interesting as a point of departure.

I can’t find any discussion of hand-packing tuna anywhere. Having been in a few meat packing plants (chicken, crab, fin fish) I’m a big fan of machines. Humans are still–I think–the way to go for inspection but even there the machines are rapidly catching up. It’s hard to beat a machine for consistency and sanitation.

I take issue with sustainability arguments. Sustainability is used as a synonym for minimizing bycatch, certainly a laudable goal. My issue is overfishing which is simply not sustainable. In my mind the best course of action is human population control but that isn’t a socially viable solution. Even “sustainable” commercial pole and line fishing has nothing to do with the Norman Rockwall imagery that the terminology brings to mind. Commercial fish farming seems most likely to be sustainable over the long term, but the people who worry most about environmental impact seem to drive their Suburbans to the store for wild-caught products because they are “natural.” sigh

We’re (big we) are simply catching too many fish. I dragged a green machine (a well regarded lure) from Falmouth UK to Norfolk VA (stops in Horta and St Georges) and caught nothing. It is possible, even likely, that I am the poster boy for why the activity is called “fishing” not “catching.” According to all commercial and recreational reports I have seen there are simply fewer fish than there once were.

On your issue of desirability I differ from most who truly enjoy food as an end itself. I like tuna packed in water. Oil-packed has a greasy and unpleasant mouthfeel for me.

My experience with major national brands like StarKist and Bumblebee is that the canned fish is very barely cooked. It appears that the cooking is that which happens in the canning process itself.

On offshore yacht delivery where we have someone on board who can really fish there is no substitute for someone who manages the catch to keep the fish from over-exerting (changes the flavor) and gets it hoisted on a tail rope so I can bleed it and cut it up. Thirty minutes from swimming in the sea to sashimi on the plate. Dinner perhaps a couple of hours later lightly seared. Even the frozen steaks are better than anything you can find at a fish monger.

I have a clinical allergy to fish. Although these reactions are often severe and even life-threatening, it’s also been reported that patients with allergies to cannon fodder appear to be ready to safely eat canned tuna due to a loss of allergenicity in processing.

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Totally agree that over-fishing and sustainability-washing are issues. Who knew scraping the ocean floor and throwing half of it away couldn’t last? :roll_eyes:

The tuna I got is this company, just trying to find quality products from local suppliers who will do wholesale on small scale. I’m not selling it for $9, though, that’s crazy (wholesale on the small, plain tuna was around $3) https://buy.taylorshellfishfarms.com/ekone-products/#

I’d say my parents were relatively early foodies/gourmets in the '70’s. We ate plenty of pasta with red sauce or pesto but I’m pretty sure my mom never made tuna casserole. She’s not generally a fish fan and I don’t remember too many casseroles. Tuna was in the rotation for school lunch sandwiches but so was blue cheese. Don’t think she ever made PB&J, either :exploding_head:

Back to fake meat, my initial reaction was why aren’t they making something more premium like shrimp or scallops but realized that Big Tuna is the much larger market to ‘disrupt’ and gain a share of. I never really liked hamburgers so am also not tempted by the Impossible/Beyond products, though I did enjoy some fake bacon when I went vegetarian in college. (Then I started working in restaurants and got over it).

Video proof or it’s not true. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Jeepers. $9 retail is a lot. I pay $2 for white albacore in water. I still haven’t found hand-packed anywhere other than your Taylor link.

My mother was a mediocre cook and my grandmother was horrible. Interestingly my college kitchen was pretty grim. The first time I ate PB&J was on fish night at school. I learned to cook from Julia Child, Martin Yan, Jeff Smith, Jacques Pepin, and their ilk on public television. Julia Child had a tuna casserole recipe by the way.

Scallops have been faux for a long time - circles stamped out of shark fin. Yes, yes, still meat but not real.

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Welcome back!:laughing:

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I agree, I’ve lived on the Texas Gulf Coast all my life and buy frozen unless I’m In Galveston.

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