Surimi/Crab Sticks

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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Surimi (often called crab sticks in the UK) is cheap and fairly easily available. But what is it? Its often thought of as a fake seafood but in Japan its recognised as a prime ingredient and is often used in sushi. So what is it made from?

It is typically made from either Alaska pollock or Pacific whiting, according to studies from the Oregon State University Seafood Lab. The fish is run through a complicated manufacturing process and turned into a gel. Depending on how that gel is processed, it can be used as a substitute for a number of types of seafood, including lobster and crab.
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Surimi seafood was initially created by Japanese chefs hundreds of years ago, who saved any extra fish they couldn't use by salting and grinding it into a gel. This isn't a new phenomenon, either -- the Japanese have considered it a delicacy for 900 years. In the 1960s, a Japanese chemist figured out how to preserve surimi with sugar, giving it a long life span, which officially kicked off an entire surimi industry. It's not just a Japanese industry today -- there are plenty of fisheries (as in, places where farmed fish are raised) on the Oregon coast too. They manufacture about 200,000 tons of surimi per year, according to Dr. Jae Park, a food scientist at OSU.
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https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/surimi-seafood-secret-ingredient

Do you ever use it? I haven't ever used it much but I'm thinking of experimenting. This pack costs just £1.50 ($1.95):

55457011_0_640x640.jpg
 
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It tastes no where near like any kind of real crab. It's fairly bland, or plain tasting.

I mean, it's not objectionable in any way, jyst not something to go out of ypur way for.

The best or most expensive ones have a mildly seafood kind of taste is the best that I can say about them.
 
Our DD and oldest DGD like it in sushi with cream cheese and whatever else usually goes in that type of sushi. I know a lot of Chinese restaurants use it in krab (the k spelling lets you know it's the fake stuff) rangoon, but I always use real crab when I make it at home or when I make sushi using crab.
 
Cream cheese and Krab in a California style inside out roll (Uramaki) is called a Phildelphia roll. My son likes them also.
 
I find it a lot at salad bars, and used to add it to my salads, as well as cook with it in dishes like krab foo young -- crabmeat, scrambled eggs, bean sprouts, chopped scallions, mushrooms, and soy sauce...

Until I read somewhere that fake krab meat gets its red color from crushed beetles. Now I think twice
 
You are ok with a misspelled, imitation, flavorless product, but won't eat it now because an extract from a bug was involved?
 
morning glory said:
Surimi (often called crab sticks in the UK) is cheap and fairly easily available. But what is it? Its often thought of as a fake seafood but in Japan its recognised as a prime ingredient and is often used in sushi. So what is it made from?





https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/surimi-seafood-secret-ingredient

Do you ever use it? I haven't ever used it much but I'm thinking of experimenting. This pack costs just £1.50 ($1.95):

View attachment 20485
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This looks more appealing than the bright pink version we get in UK supermarket. I'll take a look in the Chinese supermarket next time I go.
 
buckytom said:
You are ok with a misspelled, imitation, flavorless product, but won't eat it now because an extract from a bug was involved?
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Its understandable. I've heard lots of folk say before now that they won't eat something when they find out it is coloured with cochineal - which is the type of beetle used in many (most?) red food colourings. Often they are unaware that lots of other red and pink things contain this.

Also - I notice that lots of you are calling this product fake - well, of course if its pretending to be crab then it is faking it but if its used in its own right, as surimi, then its no more fake than any other processed food. And it is made from fish.
 
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Karen W said:
I find it a lot at salad bars, and used to add it to my salads, as well as cook with it in dishes like krab foo young -- crabmeat, scrambled eggs, bean sprouts, chopped scallions, mushrooms, and soy sauce...

Until I read somewhere that fake krab meat gets its red color from crushed beetles. Now I think twice
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Nice idea here. I have some on order so I'll try out the Krab foo yung.
 
Karen W said:
Until I read somewhere that fake krab meat gets its red color from crushed beetles. Now I think twice
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The surimi in the pack pictured above uses Lycopene to colour the sticks red - no beetles involved! Obviously the surimi in US may be different.

from the neo-Latin Lycopersicum, the tomato species) is a bright red carotene and carotenoid pigment and phytochemical found in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, gac, and papayas, but it is not in strawberries or cherries.
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= Until I read somewhere that fake krab meat gets its red color from crushed beetles. Now I think twice
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I just did lots of research regarding the colouring in surimi both here and in the US and looking at different brands - I won't bore you with all the details but you can rest assured it probably doesn't contain cochineal. The colouring used is usually lycopene which is a vegetable derivative.
 
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