Welcome to pay attention to the WeChat public account "Sanjiangxing"
Squid, octopus and cuttlefish have always been delicious in seafood and are also the favorites of all kinds of foodies. Although they all have large eyes and long tentacles, it is not difficult for the average person to distinguish them, after all, the distinction between squid, cuttlefish and octopus balls is still very high.
But if they are not made into familiar dishes, many people will not be able to distinguish them. Today, Sanjiangxing Kitchen (ID: Sanjiangxing) is here to take you to know squid, octopus and cuttlefish. Of course, knowing them is not just about eating them, but about eating them after you've sorted them out.
Squid, octopus, cuttlefish, who is who?
Squid, octopus, cuttlefish... They are not fish, but molluscs – creatures of cephalopods. The so-called mollusk is an animal with a soft body and a real body cavity; and cephalopods, as the name suggests, means that the feet are on the head.
More than 200 million years ago, there were more than 10,000 species of cephalopods in the whole, and there are only a few more than 700 species of cephalopods that we can see now.
Through the following chart, we can clearly see the taxonomic relationship of cephalopods, and distinguish who is squid, who is octopus, and who is cuttlefish.
How do you tell the difference between squid, octopus and cuttlefish?
Squid, also known as gun squid; octopus, also known as octopus; cuttlefish, also known as squid. Because the names vary from place to place, they are referred to as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish.
The first difference between the three is the mantle membrane. Squid, octopus, and cuttlefish all belong to the cephalopods, and the body can be divided into head, foot, and carcass, of which the carcass is the mantle membrane.
The difference between the mantle membrane is that the squid is conical, the octopus is spherical, and the cuttlefish is pouch-shaped. The most we eat every day is squid, also called gun squid, from this name you can imagine its size.
The second difference is brachiopods, octopus belong to the eight-wrist order, there are eight longer brachiopods, so it is often called octopus, while squid and cuttlefish belong to the total order of ten brachiopods, with ten brachiopods, so you can distinguish them from octopus by counting their feet.
As for squid and cuttlefish, some people think that it is cuttlefish that can spray ink, and it is squid that cannot spray ink. In fact, although the inkjet ability of squid is not as good as that of cuttlefish, there are still ink sacs.
The inner shell of the cuttlefish - the sea mantis
The most obvious difference between squid and cuttlefish is that cuttlefish has a layer of inner shell, which is calcareous, scientific name is sea mantis sheath, generally known as cuttlefish bone, which is also one of the common medicinal materials in Chinese medicine; and the inner shell of squid is thin and transparent, and people who have handled squid know that there is a piece of "bone" like a plastic sheet on the tail of the squid; as for cuttlefish, the inner shell has been completely degraded, so they have extremely high shrinkage skills and can drill in and out of very small holes.
This magical blue seascape appears in Toyama Bay, Japan, where fireflies and squid come to this beach every year to lay their eggs, reaching a scale of thousands.
How do these three seafood types of seafood taste good?
For most people, whether squid, octopus or cuttlefish are just synonymous with delicious seafood. So how do you maximize this delicacy?
| Squid |
The world's largest mollusk and invertebrate is the king squid, which can reach adult lengths of 18-20 meters and lives in the waters around Antarctica at a depth of 2,000 meters.
Squid is eaten all over the world, and the way to eat it is also diverse, condensing the food culture of various places:
Charcoal grilled squid/plate squid
Fried squid rings
Fry the whiskers of the squid
There are so many ways to eat squid around the world, and it is still the Japanese who have the most say, not only like to eat raw squid, but also often eat live squid directly.
For example, the largest restaurant in Fukuoka, Japan, "Wakakaei", has a large pond at the door, full of squid, and there are several stalls of how many varieties there are on that day. The most famous dish of "Wakakaei" is "Live Making", which is to put slices of live fish directly on the table.
When live squid is served, the squid's antennae are often still moving.
Hokkaido's Hakodate is known as the "Squid City", where local fishermen go out to sea to fish, marinate the live squid in soy sauce, and bring it to dinner as soon as the boat docks.
There is also squid noodles, which are cut into thin strips, covered with ginger and dipped in soy sauce. This dish is quite a knife skill, cutting the squid to the point of noodles, not what any chef can do, which is also a unique way to eat hokkaido.
Chinese the most appreciative of squid is the Chaoshan people, but in the minds of the Chaoshan people, the status of fresh squid is far inferior to dry goods, the reason should be that the squid is more fragrant after drying.
| Octopus |
Once the world's first Internet celebrity - Octopus Paul
In general, octopuses are more difficult to cook. The flesh of the squid is still relatively tender, while the flesh of the octopus is tight and elastic.
The wasabi octopus in Japanese cuisine is a delicious appetizer.
There are also small octopus balls.
If you are bold, you can also eat alive like The Korean Oba.
| Cuttlefish |
The meat of cuttlefish is similar to that of squid, which is soft and easy to cook, and we do not eat less in daily life.
Cuttlefish balls that are often eaten in hot pot.
The egg glands of female cuttlefish are called "mullet eggs", and the mullet egg soup cooked is one of the traditional famous dishes of Lu cuisine, which is also recorded in the "Suiyuan Food List" of Yuan Ming, the "god of food" in the Qing Dynasty.
Cuttlefish juice is also often used in dishes. In Venice, Italy, there is the famous cuttlefish sauce noodles, while in Spain, cuttlefish juice is used to make paella.
The bleached squid is bright white in color
How do I pick fresh squid?
Generally speaking, octopus is used more live, and many of the cuttlefish on the market are quick-frozen, but Chinese the most eaten squid, most of them are fresh, but also the most difficult to choose.
Choosing a squid first depends on the color. The flesh of the squid itself is relatively light brown, and the squid shreds are also light brown. Nowadays, many pure whites on the market, which are all bleached with bleach, look like they are beautiful, but they are harmful to the body, especially when eaten regularly, which is more harmful.
Fresh squid
Second, it depends on the softness and hardness. Fresh squid is soft, not stiff and slightly wet. The kind that is hard to touch by hand is all stale, the harder it is, the less fresh, and the very dry and hard one is left for a long time, and it tastes like a remnant of wood, and it does not have any taste.
The body shape of the high-quality squid is intact and solid, pink-red, shiny, the body surface is slightly white frost, the flesh is thick, translucent, and the back is not red; the residual squid is thin and mutilated, the color is red and yellow, slightly black, dull, the appearance of white frost is too thick, and the back is black red or moldy red.
Eating 1 bite of squid is equivalent to eating 40 bites of fatty meat?
"Squid cholesterol content is 40 times higher than fat meat, eating a bite of squid is equivalent to eating 40 bites of fat meat", I believe many people have heard of such a "popular science", in the memory of the three craftsmen's kitchen (ID: sanjiangxing), this rumor has been circulating for at least 10 years, and many people dare not eat a bite of squid. But is this really the case?
Excessive intake of cholesterol can cause arteriosclerosis, leading to the development of visceral diseases. How much cholesterol does squid actually contain? Data from China's Food Composition Table show that each 100 grams of dried squid (21.8% moisture content) contains 871 mg of cholesterol; the USDA data shows that each 100 grams of fresh squid (78.55%) contains 233 mg of cholesterol, which is replaced by the same moisture content of dried squid, with a cholesterol content of about 849 mg. In contrast, fatty meat, such as 100 grams of pork (fat) contains 109 mg of cholesterol, and fatty meat contains 8.8% of the water, which is replaced by dry weight, which is about 119.5 mg.
From the comparison of data, the cholesterol content of squid is indeed quite high, obviously higher than fat meat, but there is no 40 times so big difference, the so-called "eating a bite of squid is equivalent to eating forty bites of fat meat" is not accurate. Moreover, looking at a food, you can't simply look at the content of a certain ingredient, the fat content per 100 grams of fatty meat is 88.6 grams, while the fat content of dried squid is only 4.6 grams.
At the same time, the protein content of squid is 17%, while the fat meat is only 2.4%, and squid is also of great help for supplementing the high-quality protein needed by the human body. The mineral content of squid, such as calcium, zinc, selenium, etc., is also significantly higher than that of fatty meat. So, as long as you don't eat too much, squid is still a healthy food.