February 2023

We often get asked what we do with the waste from filleting and cleaning fish and shellfish.

I would love to say we give away loads of fish frames to our customers who want to make their own fish stock but the reality is very few do. A few of the chefs we serve do make their own stock for anything from fish pie to more eleaborate dishes. Crab and prawn shells in particular make an amazing stock and form the base to bisque and bouillabaisse or other fish stew recipes.

So everything else goes into a food recycling bin serviced by a company that turn waste food into electricity through a biomass plant in north Devon which is great.

One of our best things is we also do a bit of recycling – we buy hand-dived Lyme Bay scallops from some of our local fishermen who land into Lyme Regis. Part of the preparation process with scallops is removing the 'skirt' - the frilly bit around the scalllop meat. I  freeze these in small batches and give them to another local fisherman who fishes rod and line for Bass, Pollock and Bream. The scallop frills are one of the best baits for Bream so when he catched any we then buy these of him and sell in the shop as well – completing the cycle.

I have included a fish stock recipe in our recipe section because it is the most straight forward process and trust me it really does make a real difference to dishes. So next time your recipe says 'fish stock' ask for a few bones and make your own.