The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1912-03-01
SEA FOOD Fakes,
Popular FaIIacies About Shell and
Other Fish.
NO GENUINE LITTLE NECKS.
These Luscious CLAIMS Are Thing OF
the Past, and Blue Point Oysters Are
Mighty Scarce, Yet You May Buy
Them Almost Everywhere.

Mighty Scarce, Yet You May Buy
Them Almost Everywhere.
Only about one person in a thou
sand who orders the luscious bivalve
known as the Blue Point really gets
the genuine article. The reasons for
this are simply. first, because very
few Blue Points are raised and. sec
ondly, because the supply is usually
marketed in November and December
This brand Of oyster takes it's name
from being grown on beds in the vi
cinity of Blue Point, in Great South
bay, Long Island. The water there is
very shoal.
In consequence, when the bowling
winter nor westers blow till they virtu
ally empty the bay, any oysters on the
beds freeze To forestall the loss the
wise oyster longer becomes active and
markets Blue Points III the fall. 1t is
thus seen that the reason they are so
small is that they have had only one
oyster in that latitude requires two
or three years to mature. Neverthe-
less you can find BLUE Points" on
bills of fare in Kansas City at almost
any time of year.
Every locality has its pet brand of
oyster. Boston has its Cape Gods.
New York its Saddle Rocks, Philadel-
phia its Cape May Salts, Baltimore,
Washington and Norfolk their Lynn
Ravens. Each place is willing to
wager that its particular bivalve is the
most luscious in the world. Not being
particularly averse to starting trouble.
the writer wishes to state that, having
been born in a New Jersey oyster rails
ing community, reared near the most
famous oyster beds of New York and
having eaten mollusks harvested along
every coast of the United States, he
would lay wager on the Bayou Cook
oyster, raised in the gulf of Mexico,
for first place in the great oyster
sweepstakes, and on the Maurice river
coves raised in Delaware bay for sec
agree with me in this oyster rating.
AS summer approaches persons who
have enjoyed their Blue Points until
the advent of the r-less month of May
will, with the same sang froid. order
half dozen Little Neck CLAIMS as IL pre-
Jude to repast. They get them-not.
The Little Neck clam is thing of the
past. He, the genuine takes his name
from Little Neck bay. which lies just
where the East river joins Long Island
sound.
The title, therefore, is not derived
from any particular formation of the
CLAIMS anatomy, us most people believe.
CLAIMS, unlike oysters, cannot be cult
waited OH beds prepared for the pur-
pose, but are found In what are termed
natural beds. A number of years ago
one of these great natural beds was
discovered in Little Neck bay, the
products of which were of the most
toothsome and tender variety. The
find was Immediately bounced upon by
clam rakers from far and near, ana
the reputation Of the Little Neck was
made Although it took only few
years to exhaust the supply. nearly
every clam from every bed in the coun-
try has since basked in the reflected
glory of that Little Neck harvest, and
you can still buy genuine Little
Necks" in any sea food emporium from
Maine to California.
There are many people who do not
know that hard shell crabs and soft
shell crabs are identical. the only dis
tinction being that the soft shell crab
(for which you pay about three times
as much as for the hard shell Variety
Is simply the crab caught Immediately
after he has backed out of his old shell
and within two or three days of the
time when the skin that covers his
body has had a chance to harden into
the new shell. Soft shell crabs, like
certain Irish products, can be "eaten
skin and ALL They can be fried and
made very palatable. whereas the crab
with his regular shell in place has to
be dug out of his armor and eaten in
fragments or served under the menu
titles "deviled crab" "crab flakes" or
"crab salad"
The popular food tinny members Of
the fish family have as many inter-
esting characteristics as their she'll
clad brethren. For instance. all the
hotels and restaurants that serve gen
uine' Blue Points and Little Necks
heretofore referred to also set forth
with the same degree of equanimity
fillet of sole "a la anything that sounds
palatable). The proportion of the gen.
uine to the real article in the case Of
this commodity Is even less than with
the Blue Points.
The truth is that about nnety-nine
times out of a hundred the chefs take
our old friend the plebeian founder.
or fatfsh. and dress him up rs a
Frenchman, for real sole in this coun
try must be imported from French
waters. Founders are caught in great