Making conpoy

[Simon Lewinson]

Hi all, is it practical to make your own conpoy (dried scallops)?

I have recently made a batch of XO sauce and want to try some more variations but the problem is getting conpoy at a reasonable price. I have had to pay $18 for 100g and I can buy great frozen scallops for <$20 per Kg. I would expect that the drying would result in a dry weight of about 20% but this would be half the cost of buying conpoy.

Has anybody tried this or know of a good method? Ar they cured or cooked before drying?

Thanks

Simon

[Deryn]

Good question. I recently freeze-dried a bunch of scallops but since, rehydrated, they are pretty well like a fresh (cooked or uncooked) scallop, I don't think using that method will work to concentrate the flavours for that umami taste. I would suggest trying the dehydration method. I understand they are cooked first but I don't think there is any cure involved. I think the drying process just concentrates that 'fresh' briny flavour - so I would not wash the heck out of them before dehydrating them.

 

I recently read in a wiki article (and I don't believe everything I read on the internet) that conpoy is actually made from the adductor muscles, not the scallop proper that we usually eat. Where you might get a pile of those I do not know unless you shell your own scallops. You might try using a bay scallop as opposed to sea scallop though since they are usually cheaper.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Simon Lewinson]

Deryn, thanks. The adductor muscle us the white, fleshy bit that we eat. Where I live in Australia (4 hours inland) the only real choice is frozen sea scallops.

Do you have any idea on how they are cooked before drying? I think that cooking would lose liquid and thus flavour.

Simon

[Deryn]

Oops, Simon - sorry about that. You are correct.That is what I get for posting before my 2nd cup of coffee. I was thinking of the 'foot' attachment to the shell but then again, I don't ever shell my own scallops so what do I know.

 

Dehydrating in itself though is going to get rid of the liquid - that is its purpose (but it will concentrate the flavour of the scallop itself and most likely leave much of the sea brine residue/minerals dried out inside as well) so I would imagine thawing and lightly poaching or gently sautéing (don't sear or brown it) the scallop would suffice (just till translucent - don't overcook them). Just a guess though.

 

If you have a way to dehydrate foods (you can use your oven if it will go low enough), then I think I would try it with a few and see what happens. I would probably slice them in half (height-wise) to reduce the amount of time they will need to dry out.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Simon Lewinson]

Dehydrating in itself though is going to get rid of the liquid - that is its purpose (but it will concentrate the flavour of the scallop itself and most likely leave much of the sea brine residue/minerals dried out inside as well) so I would imagine thawing and lightly poaching or gently sautéing (don't sear or brown it) the scallop would suffice (just till translucent - don't overcook them). Just a guess though.

I am wondering about the cooking but think I might try a few in my dehydrator. Going by the colour and aroma of the conpoy I would think that the temperature used was moderately high, and I was thinking of starting off around 45C till dryish then turning it up towards 55c or so to finish the process.

Simon

[dcarch]

Based on the fact that scallops are 90% water, the fresh scallops which are dried to make the large conpoys must be the size of a dinner plate.  

Dried shrimps can be a good sub. for conpoy.

 

dcarch

[Shalmanese]

Based on the fact that scallops are 90% water, the fresh scallops which are dried to make the large conpoys must be the size of a dinner plate.

 

dcarch

Not really. You can hydrate conpoy and they'll expand to roughly their original size, which is about twice as big as the dried size. The math works out, a 2x decrease in all 3 dimensions is a 87.5% decrease in volume.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Shalmanese (log)

[Simon Lewinson]

Dried shrimps can be a good sub. for conpoy.

Have you smelt or tasted them side by side? When I made the XO sauce I tasted the dried scallops and they are nothing like a prawn. I would not compare them to each other when fresh either.

Simon

Edited March 22, 2015 by Simon Lewinson (log)

[dcarch]

Have you smelt or tasted them side by side? When I made the XO sauce I tasted the dried scallops and they are nothing like a prawn. I would not compare them to each other when fresh either.

Simon

 

Dried shrimp is in XO sauce recipes.

 

Conpoy is very expensive. I don't know how much conpoy you actually get in XO sauce you buy.

 

dcarch

[Simon Lewinson]

Commercial XO sauce contain about 5% conpoy. Mine was about 20-25%.

Simon

[_john]

I have dried scallops before in a food dehydrator to make fake conpoy 干し貝柱. I took frozen scallops and then "unrolled" them using a knife while there were still semi frozen. Laid out the strips on the dehydrator sheets and dehydrated them for about 24 hours at 35°C. When they were dry I roughly broke them up and spun them in a food processor to make scallop "floss". As far as I know conpoy are cooked before dehydrating and they are also aged. The flavor will be a little different.

Edited March 24, 2015 by _john (log)

[Simon Lewinson]

_john, thanks. I will give that a try. I am surprised how little information is available on the interweb about conpoy.

Simon

[dcarch]

Conpoy has been around for a very long time, way before electric heat, convection ovens, dehydrators were invented. Many conpoy were produced in tropical areas.

 

If they use only the sun to dry them, without salt as a preservative, how did they keep very thick and dedicated scallops 100% dry without going rotten in tropical weather?

 

Same question for dried shrimps.

 

dcarch

[_john]

If they use only the sun to dry them, without salt as a preservative, how did they keep very thick and dedicated scallops 100% dry without going rotten in tropical weather?

They are cooked first

[takadi]

I've been wondering how to make this for a very long time and I have no been able to find any definitive answers.  I'm sure there's some aging/fermentation process