I have more often heard that skate was used for "imitation scallops", my fears
were laid to rest when Julia Child wrote in "Julia Child & More Company" (1979,
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.):

"A story which keeps turning up in cookbooks is that skate wings are often cut
into rounds and sold as scallops, or 'mock scallops.'  It seemed unlikely to
me, since scallop flesh is grained vertically, and skate
horizontally--moreover, skate meat separates so readily when cooked.
But I checked with two experts.  George Berkowitz said that in his 30 years'
experience in the fish business, he'd never seen it done.  Bob Learson, of the
National Marine Fisheries laboratory in Gloucester, Massachusetts, pointed out
that the way cartilage is distributed in a skate wing would make the process
impractical on a commercial scale.  Both men dismiss the scallop story as an
old wives' tale."

So there you have it!

She follows the above with a tasty-sounding dissertation on the preparation of
skate wings.

While shark meat may be more suitable than skate for this purpose, I personally
would doubt it.

Joan Jass wrote:

> CONCH-L subscribers--
>
> Some time ago I heard that not all "scallops" one finds on seafood menus
> are mollusks, that shark meat is sometimes marketed as scallops.  Is there
> any way of telling, either by name (for ex, I would expect "bay scallop" to
> be genuine mollusk), or by examination of the product, which ones are shark
> meat?
>
> Thanks for enlightenment,  Joan
>
> J.Jass, Zoology Section, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee WI 53233

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Karlynn Morgan
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