Which knife to cut coquilles St. Jacques?

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mark76

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Last weekend I served sushi and sashimi, partly because I wanted to use my Takeda yanagiba (which is what it is called, but it has a 50/50 grind, so it is more of a sujihiki).

I was a great success. For the sashimi I cut really nice equal-sized pieces of salmon, tuna and sea brass. However... the coquilles st. Jacques (sorry, I don't know their English name) did not turn out too well.

The problem is that these animals are extremely mushy and stick to the knife in a major way. When I did slice cutting, I ended up with elongated strips of them. So I tried push cutting , but this resulted in them being pressed together (and my knife was extremely sharp: I had sharpened it up to 16K Shapton). I then froze these animals a little to make them less mushy. This improved things a bit, but not a lot. And I don't want to freeze them too much, since I don't want to loose taste.

So my question is: which knife is the best to cut coquilles st. Jacques to sashimi-sized pieces? Right now I'm thinking a Western fillet knife, since it has so little surface the animal can stick to.
 
They're called scallops in English. St. Jacques is a recipe for preparing them (which I love). Can't help you on the knife. Maybe a chef can chime in. I assume you were using the large sea scallops and not the small bay scallops. I was going to suggest getting them cold, but you did that.
 
mark76 said:
Last weekend I served sushi and sashimi, partly because I wanted to use my Takeda yanagiba (which is what it is called, but it has a 50/50 grind, so it is more of a sujihiki).

I was a great success. For the sashimi I cut really nice equal-sized pieces of salmon, tuna and sea brass. However... the coquilles st. Jacques (sorry, I don't know their English name) did not turn out too well.

The problem is that these animals are extremely mushy and stick to the knife in a major way. When I did slice cutting, I ended up with elongated strips of them. So I tried push cutting , but this resulted in them being pressed together (and my knife was extremely sharp: I had sharpened it up to 16K Shapton). I then froze these animals a little to make them less mushy. This improved things a bit, but not a lot. And I don't want to freeze them too much, since I don't want to loose taste.

So my question is: which knife is the best to cut coquilles st. Jacques to sashimi-sized pieces? Right now I'm thinking a Western fillet knife, since it has so little surface the animal can stick to.
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If they're fresh out of the shell, they're not mushy. They're firm and easy to cut. It sounds like you used pre-shucked scallops which aren't necessarily good for sashimi. For sashimi, its best to use untreated high quality frozen scallops, or fresh live scallops.

As for cutting, if you have issues with them sticking, I'd recommend a real yanagiba. The hollow back helps keep seafood from sticking and the extremely thin edge makes cutting delicate things easy.
 
I know nothing, but do remember reading that if you wet the blade it will help.

Good luck!

And thanks for the thread, now I know what coquilles are!
 
St. Jacques is indeed French for scallops. Coquilles basically means clam/bivalve, so Coquilles st Jacques is the full proper name but in my experience most people there just call them at Jacques.

I agree that a fresh scallop is firm and mushiness is a sign of age or having been previously frozen. A good trick for slicing very sticky proteins thin is to keep everything wet. In this case water is enough just be sure to keep the blade moist and wiped down frequently. Another option would be to spread some oil on the blade either and keeping it lubricated that way. I recall slicing a mahi mahi "gravlax" that was jerk-spice cured and the only way it wouldn't stick would be to frequently oil my knife.

Best of luck to you, I love raw St Jacques.
 
Thanks all. I'll definitely experiment with keeping everything wet or oiled next time. But which knife?
 
Try a Yanagiba, a good one with hollow ground backside. The scallop meat is the hinge muscle that opens & closes the shell.
 
mark76 said:
Thanks all. I'll definitely experiment with keeping everything wet or oiled next time. But which knife?
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If the Takeda is doing a god job on salmon, tuna and sea bass, it's probably not the knife, but rather the quality of the coquilles. They are often soaked in a phosphate solution that whitens them and makes them absorb more liquid, increasing their weight by as much as 30 percent, and making them soft in the process. Look for some labeled "chemical free" or "dry packed."
 
You can get fresh scallops in Holland yeh. Fresh should not be mushy. I have sliced them with yanagi & thin razor sharp 210 Suji. Agree that if the Takeda is working with other sushi topping it is the texture of the meat not the knife.
 
longhorn said:
St. Jacques is indeed French for scallops. Coquilles basically means clam/bivalve, so Coquilles st Jacques is the full proper name but in my experience most people there just call them at Jacques.
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I stand corrected. The whole name is French for scallops (and also the recipe for gratineed scallops).

Is it just me or do non-dry packed scallops have a metallic taste for everyone?
 
May be your technique as well.
Starting with well chilled scallops; hotate in Japanese, place them on the board with the 'grain' of the muscle perpendicular to the surface.
With a thinish sharp knife (like a skinny petty) make your cuts parallel to the board surface working from the bottom up. Don't use too much pressure or you'll wind up with distorted slices.
Like mhlee said, you really do need sashimi quality product to begin with to attain good results.

I like using a takobiki for scallops, but unless you're doing this regularly it's probably not worth getting such a specialized knife.
 
Thanks guys. This gives inspiration for the next time.

The scallops I got came directly from my local fish shop, which is really good (and he'd gotten them the same morning from a harbor). So no supermarket stuff.

My original question was whether a Western fillet knife would not work better, since it has less surface area the fish can stick to. What do you guys think?

You make interesting remarks, eccchef, which I'd like to try. Only how do I recognize the grain of the muscle? To me a scallop seems like an amorphos mass.
 
mark76 said:
The scallops I got came directly from my local fish shop, which is really good (and he'd gotten them the same morning from a harbor).
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The way you describe the product clashes imo with 'really good'

mark76 said:
Thanks. But I already used yanagiba. What are the other opportunities? What do you think of a Western fillet knife?
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Guess the takeda yanagiba is not considered to be a real yanagiba...
 
Bad meat, not knife... :)

Scallops should not be mushy. They should have a firm yet supple texture...think of a chicken breast...but even better think of the breast of a woman of high stature :)
 
riba said:
Guess the takeda yanagiba is not considered to be a real yanagiba...
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"Yanagiba" translates roughly as "willow leaf shaped", so the Takeda, as well as Murray Carter's yanagibas, are as "real" as any Shigefusa or Doi. Though the name is usually associated with single-bevel blades.
 
CutFingers said:
Scallops should not be mushy. They should have a firm yet supple texture...think of a chicken breast
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Maybe I exaggerated a bit by using the word mushy. But should a scallop really be as firm as a chicken breast?
 
Absolutely. Do you want to eat something raw that is not very fresh? Mushy scallops are a definite pass, I'll buy something else thanks situation
 
Pensacola Tiger said:
"Yanagiba" translates roughly as "willow leaf shaped", so the Takeda, as well as Murray Carter's yanagibas, are as "real" as any Shigefusa or Doi. Though the name is usually associated with single-bevel blades.
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By this logic, Santoku translate something like three virtues, so Yanagiba is a "real" santoku. I can easily find 3 thing Yanagiba does well.
Any who, besides the stupid example, I do not think you can take a word that has a particular meaning and use it to call a different knife. Very shady tactics.
 
Very poor form Ruso.

The example has merit - Takeda Deba are also dbl beveled, many makers produce dbl beveled Kiritsu (sp? ) and others produce single beveled Petty.

The world is not a black or white place. The term "stupid" has no place here unless your being self depriciating.
 
daveb said:
Very poor form Ruso.

The example has merit - Takeda Deba are also dbl beveled, many makers produce dbl beveled Kiritsu (sp? ) and others produce single beveled Petty.

The world is not a black or white place. The term "stupid" has no place here unless your being self depriciating.
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I think he actually was poking fun at his own example.

Cheers,

Rick
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Thank you Rick.

daveb, and many people use double bevel (western deba) as a thick gyuto rather than fileting fish.
I believe it was agreed that the right way of calling double bevel kiritsuke was, kiritsuke tip gyuto. And leave the kirituske name to single bevel knife.

Am pretty sure that singe bevel petty has it's own name. Kaisaki perhaps?

It's just seems to me that calling a double bevel knife shaped as Yanagiba a Yanagiba it is quite bending the rules and possible aimed to fool new buyers.
 
mark76 said:
Thanks. But I already used yanagiba. What are the other opportunities? What do you think of a Western fillet knife?
Click to expand...

Pensacola Tiger said:
"Yanagiba" translates roughly as "willow leaf shaped", so the Takeda, as well as Murray Carter's yanagibas, are as "real" as any Shigefusa or Doi. Though the name is usually associated with single-bevel blades.
Click to expand...

I meant that single bevel yanagiba's were suggested.

I only intended to clarify the recommendations as some suggestions were for a single bevel whereas the OP seems to have used a double bevel yanagiba. I don't have any experience with double bevel yanagiba's (only suji's), but from the pictures it looks like they function a bit different compared to my single bevel yanagiba.
 
i like using my 210 suisin inox petty for the task, very thin and short in height produces little drag.
 
A single bevel yangiba is really the thing for scallops. If I didn't have a decent Yanagi (in my case an inexpensive Yamawaku 270 that I put a Shigefusa handle on [it's cheap, but it's very well made, and cuts as well as any Yanagi I've ever handled, after I polished it out]), I'd probably use a very thin petty or sujihiki. If that Takeda "yanagi" is like the recent Takeda gyutos, I can only imagine how thick it must be above the edge, which would certainly drag a lot in scallops, while not necessarily being bad on more structured seafood.
 
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