According to the writer Liu Pen-yan, well-to-do Chekiang families used to test the cooking skills of newly-arrived daughters-in-law by giving them a hilsa herring to prepare. If she cut off the fish scales, then the family had an amateur in their midst.
善飲食又博聞掌故的作家劉本炎說，從前江浙一帶的大戶人家，要考考剛進門媳婦下廚的本事，就拿條鰣魚給她，如果媳婦在整理的時候把鱗刮掉了，一定是寒門出身，沒嚐過這道海味。