Patent
1983-07-15
1985-03-19
Abercrombie, Willie G.
17 51, 17 74, A22C 2904
Patent
active
045050040
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a process for shucking and eviscerating scallops by which the shells are caused to open and the edible portion is removed together with the viscera from which it is separated by mechanical treatment.
In the present specification and claims, the word scallop is used to cover all molluscs of the genus Pecten which comprises almost 300 species, but it goes without saying, however, that only the edible ones are of interest in the present connection. Besides the name of scallop, shellfish of the genus in question are sold under the name of Queen Scallop and "Coquille St. Jacques".
A substantial part of the harvested scallops are processed industrially by operations in which the edible portion of the scallop is removed from the shells and separated from the inedible viscera for being afterwards preserved by freezing or canning.
Until now, this processing of scallops has usually been initiated by subjecting the shellfish to a brief boiling, possibly with steam and possibly at high temperature and pressure in autoclave.
This causes the shells to open but the valves remain connected at the edge acting as a hinge. At the same time, the adherence of the scallop to the inner sides of the shells is greatly weakened, so that it is possible in a following step to shake a substantial part of the scallops out of the shells which have opened.
The part of the scallop which is regarded as edible is constituted by a cylinder-shaped muscle which in the live animal serves as closing muscle, the end of which are each secured to its respective valve. Furthermore, the edible portion may possibly comprise roe.
When the scallop is, as indicated, shaked out of the shell, the edible portion is surrounded by the viscera which are regarded as inedible and have to be removed prior to the further treatment of the edible portion. When this removal is taking place mechanically, use is made of horizontally rotating rollers for rasping off the viscera.
In addition to the said operations, some other cleaning and classifying operations take place before the edible portion of the scallops is ready for preserving, preferably by freezing.
This known process results, however, in a not negligible waste of the edible portion of the scallops which is a comparatively expensive article of food. This waste has two causes. The first is that by shaking the heat-treated scallops, it is not possible to get all the scallops out of the shells and, therefore, between 2 and 10% of the scallops are discarded together with the shells. The second cause is that the subsequent removal of the viscera from the edible portion requires a strong mechanical processing which results also in a not negligible part of said edible portion being removed by the process, for one thing due to the fact that when using the machines necessary for this strong processing, one cannot avoid that some of the shucked whole scallops, in particular the smaller ones, pass through the machines and are discarded together with the viscera, for another thing, due to the fact that the treatment can result in small parts of the edible flesh being removed from the individual scallops.
Attempts have been made at reducing the waste due to said causes by intensifying the preceding heat treatment, using longer time of treatment and/or higher temperatures. It is possible thereby to facilitate to some extent the loosening of the scallops from the shells, but at the same time this results in an unacceptable quality reduction and a lower yield due to reduced water absorption, for which reason such an intensifying of the heat treatment is unsuitable for obviating the said two causes of waste.
Finally, it has been proposed to use an enzyme treatment to facilitate the subsequent removing of edible flesh from marine animals in general, such as oysters, clams, scallops, shrimps, crayfish, sea snails, etc., cf. U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,071. In connection with the processing of scallops, said process presents, however, a number of drawbacks.
As a result of the dimensions and structure of these mo
REFERENCES:
patent: 3513071 (1970-05-01), Fehmerling
patent: 3619855 (1971-11-01), Willis
patent: 3662432 (1972-05-01), Wenstrom
patent: 3706333 (1972-12-01), Ammerman
Abercrombie Willie G.
Matcon Radgivende Ingeni rfirma ApS.
LandOfFree
Process for shucking and eviscerating scallops does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Process for shucking and eviscerating scallops, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Process for shucking and eviscerating scallops will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-746085