Canning (sea) scallops.

An elderly gentleman I know used to harvest scallops and the younger fellows who he helped in the past now drop off bags of scallops to my friend. These bags are 10-15lbs of scallops each day for 3-4 days a week. My elderly friend shucks them and passes them out to others he knows, so they won’t get wasted.

I have found articles on canning tuna, clams, etc., but nothing on scallops. Do you know if they can be pressure canned? If so, c/would you suggest a recipe or time/pressure

Totally wish I could be your next door neighbor and learn lots more.

Cheryll Carter
Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts

Wow! I really love scallops, but of course, here in northern Minnesota, we don’t have access to them. Lucky you. To can scallops, clean them well then pack into hot pint or half-pint jars. No seafood should be processed in quarts. Add ½ tsp of salt to pints and ¼ tsp salt to half pints. Then pour boiling water over the scallops leaving 1 inch of headspace. Process at 10 pounds pressure for an hour and 40 minutes.

I’d love having you for a neighbor, too, but our only neighbors are deer, wolves, coyotes, moose, and other critters. — Jackie

Canning frozen eggs

We have just acquired six 5-gallon square plastic buckets of pickled eggs. They are in vinegar and professionally packed and frozen. They are on our basement floor thawing out. What can we do? CAN them safely? We were concerned so what about freezing them standing up and covered in the commercial brine and make sure covered! If you could answer back ASAP we will owe you even more!

Steve and Denise
Coggon, Iowa

I honestly can’t tell you what to do with your eggs. I pickle fresh eggs all the time, but have never pickled previously frozen eggs before. Sorry not to have gotten back to you on this sooner but I only access my computer a couple times a week, not daily like most on-grid folks. — Jackie

5 COMMENTS

  1. I canned fresh, high-quality scallops a few days ago, and they turned dark brown. (Will be glad to send you a picture.) I first pressure-steamed them briefly so that I could hot-pack them. I saved the whitish meat liquid collected at the bottom to use for the actual canning. I packed the pint with the hot, cooked scallops and added the hot meat liquid (contained 1 tsp salt/pint). I topped off the canning jar with 1 tsp of bottled lemon juice before pressure canning. Everything still whitish color, until I opened the canner and found my precious and expensive scallops were now dark brown. Amazing color change.
    I canned shrimp at same time, exact same way, and they look fine. I’m stumped. Any ideas?

  2. Matt,

    Yes, they would stay okay sealed in the original buckets. Yes, you can re-can pickled foods, but with frozen eggs, I don’t know how this would affect their texture and taste.

    Jackie

  4. Hi Jackie,

    Thank you so much for the info on canning scallops!! Next time they arrive I’ll can some up and send some your way :)

  5. Would the pickled eggs remain pickled and safe if left sealed in the buckets in the original brine? Pickling is a standard preservation method.

    I haven’t recanned pickeled eggs, but have recanned pickles, pickled beets, pickled jalapeno etc. All I’ve done is pour the pickling liquid into a large pot, bring it to a boil, refresh with additional vinegar if needed. The original pickled product goes into hot sterilized jars (I use pints or quarts) and into a water bath canner for around 30 minutes to get the jars to seal. I wouldn’t hesitate to try this with commercially pickled eggs.

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