Future Fish
Scup — aka Porgy — is one of the region's most underrated, sustainable, and delicious fish, long dismissed as "trash fish" but now gaining well-deserved recognition among chefs and home cooks.
It tastes great, like snapper or branzino, with firm, sweet, white flaky flesh. It is not, however, easy to filet, which can make it a real time suck in the kitchen. It's faster — epicures will say tastier — gutted, scaled and cooked whole, but most American seafood consumers are leery of head-on fish.
This year's Seafood Expo North America in Boston, where international seafood companies show off their latest products, introduced the future. As JM Hirsh reported for AP this week, "The future of fish is looking a lot like… salami? And meatballs. And fried chicken. And breakfast sausage. And, of course, spareribs and burgers. This is America, after all."
“Disguising” fish is a trend that began long ago. Birdseye Foods was the first to market frozen fishsticks in 1953, as a way to unload the oversupply of frozen fish after WWII. It was all about making what would have been “trash fish” look and taste more palatable. Hey there, Porgy girl!
Enter the Seafood scientists of The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation at URI. They knew that some 40% of Americans don't eat seafood, and most of the rest stick to the familiar — salmon, cod, shellfish. Selling a plentiful but small "trash fish" like scup would require some inventiveness. The first problem: processing the bony little devils at scale.
In 2014 CFRF began looking at fileting equipment, ultimately identifying Pisces Fish Machinery in Michigan who were able to put together a line of equipment that effectively filleted scup, removing all bones. Next year CFRF partnered with Johnson & Wales University and Sea Grant RI to develop recipes and conduct taste tests.
Research continues on Scup stocks and harvesting. Scup grow slowly, and while they can reach 20 inches and 4 pounds, most commonly caught are just 10 to 14 inches. 10 years later, according to CCRF,
"Due to yield and suitable fillet sizes, there is a demand gap for medium-sized scup, leading to high grading and increased economic discards within the fishery. Mechanically deboning scup into mince for use in value-added products offers a potential solution to utilize more of the scup population throughout the year. In 2024, Dr. Chong Lee from the University of Rhode Island conducted several trials of scup mince processing to demonstrate the feasibility of using a Baader deboning machine to produce mince."
(Editor’s note — Baader makes chicken processing equipment.)
If you've had a delicious tuna tartare or sea bass ceviche, then you know what minced fish is. The question now is how to turn minced scup into cooked dishes that people will want to order.
So it is time to experiment in the kitchen again. CCRF is now taking applications from seafood chefs to come up with recipes using fresh minced scup. The two restaurants chosen for this program will each receive a $2,500 stipend and ample supplies of product.
Scupcakes, anyone?