Digby Scallops A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusc of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a universal family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly valued as a food source. The brightly-colored, fan-shaped shells of some scallops with their radiating fluted pattern are valued by shell collectors. Even more so are the rare scallop pearls. "Scallop" is derived from the Old French word “escalope”, which translates "shell". Scallops are most commonly harvested using scallop dredges or bottom trawls. Only recently is there also a market for scallops harvested by divers. Scallops are hand-caught on the ocean floor, as opposed to being dragged across the sea floor by a dredge which causes them to collect sand. As a result, diver scallops tend to be less gritty. They can also be more ecologically friendly, as the harvesting method does not cause damage to undersea life. In addition, the normal harvesting methods often mean delays of up to two weeks before the scallops arrive at market, which can cause the flesh to break down, and results in a much shorter shelf life. By far the largest wild scallop fishery is for the Atlantic sea scallop off northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Digby, Nova Scotia is known as Canada’s Scallop Capital. Most of the rest of the world's production of scallops are from Japan and China. Scallops are a popular type of shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are characterized by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called "scallop" which is white and meaty, and the roe, called "coral", which is red or white and soft. In Western cuisine, scallops are commonly sautéed in butter, or else breaded and deep fried. Scallops are commonly paired with light semi-dry white wines. In our area, when a scallop is prepared, usually only the adductor muscle is used; the other parts of the scallop surrounding the muscle are ordinarily discarded. Here is a recipe for a popular appetizer in the Digby area: Bacon Wrapped Scallops 1 Lb of Digby Scallops Bacon Brown Sugar Lightly grease a cooking sheet. Wrap scallops with a piece of bacon, secure bacon to scallops with a toothpick. Place on the cooking sheet and sprinkle with brown sugar. Place in the oven on Broil for 2-3 minutes. Take out of the oven, flip scallops, sprinkle scallops again with more brown sugar and Broil for another 2-3 minutes. Serve and enjoy!