Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/559

Rh In New York markets Rhode Island scallops have a reputation for excellence that may or may not be deserved, for in that city "Oyster Bay asparagus" is a label put on almost all bunches of that vegetable as soon as the product of New Jersey arrives; all small hard clams are "Little Necks" although that part of Long Island does not market over fifty thousand bushels in a year, and the quality of tenderness and flavor varies as it does



with "Blue Point" oysters, a term now used for most small oysters, as "Saddle Rock" is for large ones, although no oysters have been taken from that rock in twenty years. So much for a reputation; but the expert housewife looks the different lots of scallops over, passes by the white ones, and buys those of a yellow tint. The fact is that the meat of the scallop is naturally a faint yellow, but soaking whitens and injures it. This soaking in fresh water is done to make them swell and measure more, and it increases their bulk by about a third until the frying-pan has