Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
Green ormer
The sea ear, and the most expensive thing on the rock.
- Shuck it, brush the foot and beat it with a mallet, or it stays rubbery
- Sear 40 seconds a side in foaming butter, no more
- Or braise it for an hour in white wine, but never anything in between
- In French
- Ormeau
- Scientific name
- Haliotis tuberculata
- In the water
- Rocks of the Channel and the Atlantic, under stones, from the surface to 10 metres.
- Season & buying
- Strictly regulated gathering, at low tide from September to May.
- Common length
- ~8 cm
- How to identify it
- Flat ear-shaped shell
A row of open holes along one edge
Pearly interior, green and rose
On the plate
Very firm meat with a long finish, somewhere between a scallop and a mushroom.
Avoid: The middle ground, two to ten minutes, is exactly what makes it inedible.
The holes in its shell are its chimneys: it opens a new one as it grows and seals the oldest, so you can read its age along the edge.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
