Conpoy or dried scallop is a type of Cantonese dried

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

product that is made from the adductor muscle of

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families ...

s. The smell of conpoy is marine, pungent, and reminiscent of certain

salt-cured meat Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. Salting, either with dry salt or brine, was a common method of preserving meat until the middle of the 20th century, becoming less popular after the advent of refr ...

s. Its taste is rich in

umami Umami ( from ja, 旨味 ), or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It has been described as savory and is characteristic of broths and cooked meats. People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamates and ...

due to its high content of various free

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha ...

s, such as

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid ( carbamic acid is unstable), with the chemical formula NH2‐ CH2‐ COOH. Glycine is one of the proteinog ...

alanine Alanine (symbol Ala or A), or α-alanine, is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an amine group and a carboxylic acid group, both attached to the central carbon atom which also carries a methyl group side ...

, and

glutamic acid Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; the ionic form is known as glutamate) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that the human body can synt ...

. It is also rich in

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main ...

s such as

inosinic acid Inosinic acid or inosine monophosphate (IMP) is a nucleotide (that is, a nucleoside monophosphate). Widely used as a flavor enhancer, it is typically obtained from chicken byproducts or other meat industry waste. Inosinic acid is important in ...

, amino acid byproducts such as

taurine Taurine (), or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic compound that is widely distributed in animal tissues. It is a major constituent of bile and can be found in the large intestine, and accounts for up to 0.1% of total human body weight. I ...

, and minerals, such as

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

. Conpoy is produced by cooking raw scallops and then drying them.

Terminology

''Conpoy'' is a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

from the

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

pronunciation of 乾貝 (), which literally means "dried shell(fish)".

Usage

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

, conpoy from two types of scallops are common. Conpoy made from '' Atrina pectinata'' or ' ( 江珧) from mainland

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

is small and milder in taste. ''

Patinopecten yessoensis ''Mizuhopecten yessoensis'' (Yesso scallop, giant Ezo scallop) is a species of marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pectinidae, the scallops. Its name Yesso/Ezo refers to its being found north of Japan. Its tissues bioaccumulate algal yessotox ...

'' or ' ( 扇貝), a sea scallop imported from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

(''hotategai'', 帆立貝 in Japanese), produces a conpoy that is stronger and richer in taste . As with many dried foods, conpoy was originally made as a way to preserve

in times of excess. In more recent times its use in cuisine has been elevated to gourmet status. Conpoy has a strong and distinctive flavor that can be easily identified when used in rice congee, stir fries, stews, and

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

XO sauce XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong with an umami flavour. It is commonly used in southern Chinese regions such as Guangdong. History Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly-chopped dr ...

, a

seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". ...

used for frying vegetables or seafoods in

Cantonese cuisine Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine ( or ) is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau.H ...

, contains significant quantities of conpoy. For example, the Lee Kum Kee formulation lists conpoy as the third ingredient on its label.

References

{{Dried fish and seafood Seafood Food ingredients Dried meat

Terminology

Usage

See also

References